TO    THE    BELOVED    MEMORIES 

OF    MY 

FATHER    AND    MOTHER 
THESE    SIMPLE    RECORDS    OF    THEIR 

ANCESTORS 
ARE    LOVINGLY    INSCRIBED 


COLONIAL 
DAYS  &W1XS 

As  GATHERED 
FAMILY 


Of  SHAR.ON,  CONNECTICUT 

"With  Decorations  by 
T.Guernsey  Moore 


NEW   VORK 

Publiftied  by  <fh*  CENTUKT  Co. 
M      C       M 


0)00 


0 

(o 


Copyright,  1900,  by 
HELEN  EVERTSON  SMITH. 

Copyright,  1900,  by 
NEW  YORK  EVENING  POST  Co. 

Copyright,  1900,  by 
THE  CENTURY  Co. 


THE  DEVINNE  PRESS. 


CONTENTS 


II 


IV 


THE  ALPHABET  OF  COLONIAL  STUDY      ix 

(  Sources  of  Information^  (Superiority  _of  JLetters 
and  Diaries  over  other  Records}  Pilgrim,  Puri 
tan,  and  Cavalier;  Dutchman,  Huguenot,  and 
Palatine.  Rapidity  of  Colonial  Growth. 

THE     CONTENTS     OF     AN     ANCIENT 
GARRET       ..........      17 

Sharon,  Connecticut.  When  and  how  the 
Township  was  Settled.  The  Old  House:  how 
it  was  Constructed;  who  Lived  in  it;  the  Papers 

it  Contained. 

A    PIONEER    PASTOR  .......     33 

Rev.  Henry  Smith  of  Wethersfield,  Connecticut. 

Troubles  of  a  Wilderness  Church.  Letter  from 
Samuel  Smith  of  Hadley,  Massachusetts,  in 
1698,  describing  Early  Days  in  Wethersfield. 
The  Minister's  Will. 


59 


A  PIONEER  HOME  IN  CONNECTICUT 

('The  Coming  of  Mrs.  Margaret  Lake  and  the 
Family  of  Captain  John  Gallupy  Voyage  of  the 
Abigail.  The  First  Homesteads  of  the  Second 
Generation.  Household  Labor.  A  Bride's 
Furnishings. 


TWO  HOUSES  IN  OLD  NEW  AMSTER 
DAM 89 

The  Long  Step  from  Connecticut  to  New  York. 
Comforts  of  the  Dutch.      Mr.  David   Codwise 


VI 


Tells  of  the  Houses  of  his  Grandfather  and  of 
Niclaes  Evertsen,  Grandson  of  Lieutenant-Ad 
miral  Jan  Evertsen. 

^1     THE    CARES    OF   THE    HUYSVROUW    .    107 
Every    Homestead    a    Manufactory.       Slavery. 
Good    Providers.    Spinning  and  Weaving.    Soap 
and    Candle    Making.       Washing.        Bread  and 
Yeast.      Butter  Making.      Nursery  Lore. 

VII     THE  ESCAPE  OF  A  HUGUENOT  FAMILY   123 

Edict  of  Nantes  and  its  Revocation.  The  Hu 
guenot  Exodus.  (Arts  Carried  Abroad^  Daniel 
L' Estrange.  A  Huguenot  "  Lady  in  Waiting." 
An  Effectual  Disguise.  To  New  Rochelle  by 
Way  of  England. 

VIII     HUGUENOT     HOMES      IN     NEW     RO 
CHELLE  139 

Life  less  Toilsome  than  with  Most  of  the  Colo 
nists.  Attachment  to  the  Services  of  their 
Church.  Refugees  not  Colonists.  Loyalty  to 
the  Land  of  their  Adoption.  Little  Daintinesses 
of  House  Furnishing. 

IX     HUGUENOT    WAYS    IN   AMERICA     .      .153 

Alterations  in  Names.  Resentment  toward  their 
Native  Land.  Differences  between  French  and 
English  Calvinists.  (Schools  Established  by  the 
Huguenots.  Amusements,  and  Games  of  Courtesy  A 

X     A    COLONIAL    WEDDING 167 

Gallup  and  Chesebrough.  Rev.  William  Worth- 
ington  of  Saybrook,  Connecticut.  Wedding 
Customs.  Quality  and  Commonalty.  The 
Uninvited  Guests.  A  Valiant  Supper. 

XI     LIFE       ON       AN       EARLY       COLONIAL 

MANOR ,83 

Terms  of  Grant.  The  First  Lady  of  the  Liv 
ingston  Manor.  Extent  of  the  Manor. 


Vll 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

'XII     PROSPEROUS      DAYS      ON      A      LATER 

MANOR 197 

^Increase  of  the  Clan  in  Numbers  and  Wealth. 
Education.^  Margaret  Beeckman  Livingston, 
Last  Lady  of  the  Manor  of  Clermont. 

v  XIII     A    COUNTRY   PARSON'S    WIFE      .     .     .   205 

Lake,  Gallup,  Chesebrough,  and  Worthington; 
Elliott,  Chauncey,  Hopkins,  Ely,  and  Good 
rich.  The  Parsonage  and  its  Furnishings.  Fire 
and  Flint. 

XIV     HOME    CARES    IN   A    PARSONAGE    .     .221 
(  Madam  Smith's  Multiplied  Employments.    Small 
Incomes  and  Many  Out-goes.  J  Extracts  from 
Madam    Smith's   Reminiscences.       The   Small 
pox.    Hospitality.    The  Preaching  of  Whitefield. 

XV     SUNDAYS  AND   OTHER  DAYS  IN    THE 

PARSONAGE 233 

From  Sunset  to  Sunset.  (  The  Weekly  Ablution^ 
Care  of  the  Teeth.  Long  Services.  Catechiz 
ing.  Sunday  Night.  Fashions  and  Clothes. 
An  Evening  of  Sacrifice. 

/XVI     MANOR    LADIES    AS    REFUGEES  ...   247 
Flight    of  the   Livingstons    from   Kingston    and 
Clermont  to  Litchfield  County,  Connecticut.  The 
Young  Van  Rensselaer.      Westerlo.     Vaughan's 
Raid.      Ladies  as  Hostlers.      Husking  Bees. 

XVII     A    LITERARY    CLUB    IN    1779^81   ...   267 
("The   "Clio.}*  /Two    Diaries.)  ^The    Sharon 
Literary  ClubX    Canfield.      Spencer.      News  of 
Victory.       Tailors    and    Clothes.       Chancellor 
Kent.      Noah  Webster.   (  Holmes  the  Historian.^ 

XVIII     NEW    ENGLAND'S    FESTIVE   DAY      .     .   289 

Thanksgiving    in    1779.      Expedients.      Abun 
dant  Hospitality.      Absence  of  Beef.       Celery. 
VAfter-dinner  Entertainment.   \  Two  Oranges. 


Vlll 


299 


3'5 


XIX     A  SNOW-SHOE   JOURNEY     .     .      . 

A  Blizzard  in    1779.    ^itchfield's   Busy 
Judge  Tapping  Reeve  and  Family.      From  Litch- 
field  to  Woodbury  on  Snow-shoes.    Parson  Bene 
dict. 

XX     A    NEW    YORK    EVENING    FROLIC   .     . 
Mr.  David  Codwise  Tells  of  an  Evening  at  the 
Rhinelander  Homestead.      Candles  and  Candle- 
dipping.      The  Supper.      The  "Fire  Dance." 
The  Parting  Cup. 

XXI     A    MAN    OF    ENTERPRISE 3j9 

Medical  Man  and  Merchant.  (An  Early  Medical 
ConventionJ  A  Captain  of  Volunteers.  Ad 
vancing  Money  and  Supplies.  A  Solvent  Debtor. 
Comparative  Prices.  Removal  to  Vermont. 

XXII  A   COUNTRY    PARSON'S     USEFUL   LIFE  347 

Ancestors.  Personal  Characteristics.  Small 
pox  in  Sharon.  "Old  Jack"  and  "Billy 

G . "      A  Lesson  in  Kindliness.      Influence 

with  Indians.      The  Sabbath  Made  for  Man. 

XXIII  "WELL    DONE,     GOOD     AND    FAITH 

FUL" 365 

(The  Meeting-house  as  a  News  Depot.  |  A  Season 
of  Discouragement.  A  Meeting-house  of  the 
Eighteenth  Century.  The  News  of  Burgoyne's 
Surrender.  /A  Half-century  Sermon.  \  De 
scendants. 


UNIVEH- 


ITH  the  gathering  of  relicVtb 
suitable  exhibits  at  the  centennial 
celebration  of  our  national  inde 
pendence,  there  came  a  general 
awakening  of  interest  in  all  things 
pertaining  to  the  history  of  our  Revolutionary  War 
and  of  the  few  years  preceding  it.  Beginning  with 
an  interest  only  in  this  special  period,  the  slow  fire 
spread  backward  until  now  there  are  few  persons 
— at  least,  of  English,  Dutch,  Huguenot,  or  even  of 
the  late-coming  Palatine  descent  —  who  are  not 
increasingly  interested  in  all  that  pertains  to  the 
earliest  colonists.  Especially  is  this  true  —  proba 
bly  because  reliable  information  concerning  it  is  so 
difficult  of  access  —  in  whatever  pertains  to  the 
home  life,  the  employments,  the  enjoyments,  the 
hardships,  and  the  habits  of  our  ancestors  in  those 
far-away  days  when  the  comforts  and  conveniences 
which  they  possessed  were,  as  compared  with 
our  own,  proportionately  as  those  of  the  Indians 
when  compared  with  those  of  the  English  in  1620. 
So  far,  it  must  be  confessed  that,  while  the 
amount  of  information  painfully  gathered  from 


town  records,  wills,  inventories,  letters,  traditions, 
and  relics  is  not  inconsiderable,  we  are  not  as  greatly 
the  gainers  by  it  all  as  we  should  be.  We  have  the 
alphabet,  but  we  do  not  yet  know  how  to  make 
words,  still  less  how  to  construct  the  sentences, 
ii:tell  us  the  true  story  of  the  most  in- 
beginning  which  any  people  has  ever 


Our  national  life  has  not  been  one  of  growth 
from  savagery  up,  through  many  wars,  through 
centuries  of  depression  and  oppression,  of  slow 
disintegrations  and  slower  constructions,  but  is 
the  result  of  deliberate  purpose  on  the  part  of  the 
majority  of  the  first  colonists,  of  no  matter  what 
creed  or  nationality,  to  occupy  this  wide,  wild, 
new  land,  free  to  the  first  comer,  and  bring  to  it 
all  the  best  of  the  institutions  of  the  Old  World, 
while  leaving  behind  all  that  was  worn  out,  all 
that  had  served  its  day. 

For  this  reason,  if  for  no  other,  the  smallest 
traces  of  our  national  beginnings  should  be  sought 
for;  but  not  as  one  gathers  pebbles  on  the  sea 
shore,  to  bring  them  home,  turn  them  over,  and 
throw  them  away.  Every  old  record,  every  homely 
detail,  every  scrap  of  old  furniture,  every  bit  of 
home  handicraft,  above  all,  every  familiar  old  let 
ter  or  diary  or  expense-book,  should  be  treasured  ; 
not  always  each  for  its  own  sake,  but  because  each 
thing,  however  valueless  by  itself,  is  a  letter  in  our 
alphabet,  and,  when  read  in  connection  with 


something  else,  may  help  in  the  formation  of  a 
word  hitherto  unknown  to  us. 

In  forming  pictures  of  home  life  in  the  colonies, 
dates,  places,  and  social  classes  must  all  be  most 
carefully  considered.  Slow-moving  as  those  pre- 
electric  days  now  seem  to  us,  there  yet  was  a  con 
stant  and,  when  rationally  considered,  a  rapid 
progression,  from  the  moment  of  the  first  landing 
at  Jamestown  onward. 

The  life  conditions  which  prevailed  in  the  New 
England  colonies  from  1620  to  1640  were  by  no 
means  the  same  as  those  which  prevailed  in  the 
same  colonies  during  the  next- two  decades,  and  in 
the  other  colonies  they  were  at  no  time  quite  the 
same  as  in  New  England.  The  settlers  of  Vir 
ginia,  Delaware,  and  Maryland  were  not  of  the 
same  creeds,  either  political  or  religious,  as  those 
which  prevailed  in  New  England.  They  had 
more  money,  not  having  been  obliged  to  make 
their  flitting  under  such  adverse  circumstances,  and 
climate  had  also  its  influence. 

The  Dutch  held  very  similar  religious  and  politi 
cal  views  to  those  of  the  New  England  colonists, 
but  their  commercial  instincts  were  stronger,  their 
aggressiveness  was  less  vehement,  and  their  love 
of  home  comforts  and  knowledge  of  how  to  obtain 
them  were  much  greater,  for  during  the  fifteenth 
and  sixteenth  centuries  Holland  was  at  the  head 
of  the  commerce  and  manufactures  of  the  world. 
Besides  this,  many  of  the  immigrant  Hollanders 


were  either  wealthy  themselves,  or  were  the  well- 
provided  offshoots  from  wealthy  families  who 
were  disposed  to  enlarge  their  estates  by  commerce 
in  the  new  lands. 

The  first  three  sets  of  colonists  had  passed  through 
their  pioneer  stages,  and  gathered  around  them 
selves  a  fair  degree  of  all  the  accompaniments  of 
civilization  before  the  advent  of  the  fourth  dis 
tinct  and  considerable  body  of  settlers.  These  were 
the  refugee  Huguenots.  In  religion  the  Hugue 
nots  were  as  Calvinistic  in  their  creed  as  were 
the  Puritans  and  the  Dutch,  and  were  fully  as 
earnest  and  steadfast  in  their  belief,  while  the  per 
secutions  which  the  Puritans  had  suffered  in  Eng 
land  could  no  more  be  compared  with  those  which 
had  been  endured  for  nearly  two  centuries  by  the 
Huguenots  than  the  privations  of  one  of  our  late 
Spanish  captives  could  be  compared  with  the  suf 
ferings  of  the  colonists  harried  by  the  Indians  in 
the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries. 

Whether  they  had  been  rich  or  poor  in, France, 
there  were  very  few  of  the  Huguenot  refugees 
who  were  not  in  the  depths  of  poverty  when  they 
reached  here.  But  they  were  gentle  (in  both 
senses  of  the  word),  they  were  trained  in  many 
arts,  and  they  had  the  keen  perceptions,  the  cour 
tesy,  and  the  easy  adaptability  of  their  race.  Home 
life  among  them  was  different  from  that  of  any  of 
the  other  colonists,  partly  because  they  had  the 
advantage  of  coming  to  a  land  which  had  already 


been  occupied  for  more  than  threescore  years  by 
laborious,  progressive,  and  intelligent  settlers,  and 
partly  because  they  came  from  a  land  which  was 
in  some  things  more  advanced  than  either  Holland 
or  England.  Politically  the  Huguenots  had  little 
sympathy  with  either  English  or  Dutch.  Their  race 
was  strongly  monarchical  by  instinct;  the  rights  of 
the  individual  man  had  never  assumed  their  proper 
proportions  in  the  eyes  of  Frenchmen. 

The  last  of  the  great  immigrations  was  that  of 
the  Palatines.  In  modern  times  there  never  has 
been  such  wholesale  abandonment  of  home  and 
fatherland  as  that  by  these  unfortunate  members 
of  a  home-loving  race,  driven  by  scores  of  thou 
sands  forth  from  the  land  of  their  birth  by  unen 
durable  misery.  Their  home  had  been  the  battle 
ground  of  Europe.  Great  kings  and  petty  princes, 
Catholics  and  Protestants,  had  alike  fought  over  it, 
burned  its  villages,  destroyed  its  crops,  leveled  its 
strongholds,  and  harried  its  people  until  they  had 
no  hope  remaining.  In  sheer  desperation  they 
begged  from  the  compassion  of  England  a  passage 
to  and  a  home  in  the  wilds  of  the  new  land. 
Theirs  is  a  history  as  yet  inadequately  written,  but 
it  is  worthy  of  the  pen  of  a  really  good  historian, 
and  when  one  shall  arise  from  among  their  descen 
dants  theirs  will  prove  to  be  a  worthy  and  in  some 
respects  an  unexampled  record. 

In  studying  the  lives  of  the  early  colonists  these 
different  origins  should  always  be  considered, 


The  one  colony  must  not  be  judged  by  another. 
The  Puritan, —  a  political  as  well  as  a  religious 
exile, —  persecuted  for  his  political  views  even 
more  than  his  religious  tenets,  came  here  to 
found  an  empire  where  all  his  views  should  have 
room  and  liberty  to  expand.  He  was  keen-witted, 
and, — for  his  day,  be  it  ever  understood, —  in  spite 
of  his  rigid  notions  of  morality,  and  of  all  modern 
assertions  to  the  contrary,  he  was  no  narrower  in 
his  strictness  than  was  the  roistering  Cavalier  in  his 
laxity  of  morals.  The  harshness  of  the  Puritan 
toward  those  who  disagreed  with  him  was  tender 
ness  and  mercy  compared  to  the  "justice  "  meted 
out  to  either  religious  or  political  dissidents  in  old 
England,  or,  for  that  matter,  in  any  other  country 
in  Europe,  with  the  possible  exception  of  Holland, 
at  that  period.  Neither  man  nor  nation  should  be 
judged  by  other  than  the  standards  of  his  time. 

The  conditions  of  the  Puritan's  life  were  hard, 
but  full  of  mental,  moral,  and  physical  health. 
Whether  gentle  or  simple,  he  despised  no  handi 
craft,  neglected  no  means  of  cultivation,  shirked 
no  duty  (nor  did  he  permit  any  other  to  do  so,  if 
he  could  help  it),  and  he  fought  his  way  upward, 
unhasting,  unresting. 

The  settlers  of  the  fertile  Southlands  were  also 
principally  of  English  blood,  yet  they  differed 
widely  from  those  of  the  sterile  North.  They 
were  courageous,  of  course.  A  minority  came 
under  compulsion,  but  the  majority  came  of  their 


own  free  will,  and  cowards  did  not  cross  the  ocean 
in  those  days,  when  the  sea  and  the  wilderness  had 
real  terrors  for  even  the  boldest.  The  love  of  lib 
erty  was  in  their  blood,  and  both  the  traditions  of 
their  past  and  the  comparatively  genial  conditions 
by  which  they  were  surrounded  gave  them  easy 
and  comfortable  views.  If  the  Englishman  of  the 
North  were  strenuous,  energetic,  a  warm  friend  and 
a  stern  foe,  he  of  the  South  was  strong,  generous, 
and  joyous.  If  each  were  disposed  to  look  a  lit 
tle  askance  at  the  other  when  the  world  went  well 
with  both,  when  trouble  threatened  either  the  fra 
ternal  blood  flowed  warm  and  true.  We  are  all 
proud  of  them  both  —  stern  Puritan,  gay  Cavalier. 

The  Dutchman  was  milder  than  the  Puritan, 
but  every  way  as  stiff-necked,  and  was  an  inborn 
republican  as  well  as  an  educated  Calvinist. 
Slower  in  his  perceptions,  narrower  in  his  concep 
tions,  and  more  prejudiced  than  even  the  Puritan, 
his  faults  were  not  so  glaring  because  less  aggres 
sive,  and  the  strength  of  his  friendships  and  family 
affections  hid  them  from  the  view  of  those  who 
lived  nearest  him.  As  a  mariner  and  as  a  trader, 
as  well  as  in  the  arts  which  tend  to  make  life  easier 
and  more  comfortable,  he  had  few  equals,  and  our 
country  owes  much  of  its  subsequent  prosperity  to 
the  Dutchman's  commercial  and  industrial  instincts. 
We  are  ever  grateful  to  him. 

The  Huguenot  was  devout,  unambitious,  affec 
tionate  of  heart,  artistic,  cultivated,  adaptable.  He 


8 


brought  to  us  the  arts,  accomplishments,  and  graces 
of  the  highest  civilization  then  known,  together 
with  a  sweet  cheerfulness  all  his  own.  Not  a  colony 
or  a  class  but  was  ameliorated  by  his  influence, 
and,  consciously  or  unconsciously,  we  all  love 
him. 

The  Palatine  came  to  our  shores  desperate  with 
misery.  Although  Protestant,  his  faith  was  not 
Calvinistic,  neither  did  it  fill  so  large  a  place  in  his 
thoughts.  To  the  older  colonists  he  seemed  to  be 
material,  almost  sordid,  in  his  aims ;  but  they  un 
derstood  neither  his  language  nor  his  desperation. 
Perhaps  they  did  not  sufficiently  try  to  do  so.  So 
he  was  left  to  himself,  and  so  difficult  was  he  of 
assimilation  that  even  to-day  those  of  his  descen 
dants  who  live  a  little  off  from  the  highways  of  com 
merce  may  still  be  found  speaking  but  very  im 
perfect  English,  if  any,  and  living  in  self-centered 
communities,  with  little  heed  of  the  outside  world, 
shut  off  from  its  influence.  Industrious,  frugal,  un- 
progressive,  living  for  himself  alone,  we  still  do  not 
comprehend  him. 

Now,  it  is  certain,  from  the  nature  of  things,  that 
the  home  lives  of  all  these  different  bands  of  colo 
nists  must  have  differed  widely.  None  had  luxuries 
and  few  had  comforts,  as  we  now  understand  these 
terms,  but  each  had  some  possessions,  some  ways, 
some  deficiencies,  and  some  attainments  which  be 
longed  to  none  of  the  others;  hence  it  is  that  a 
knowledge  of  the  home  life  and  personal  character- 


istics  prevalent  in  one  colony  does  not  imply  a 
knowledge  of  those  of  another. 

Even  the  details  of  domestic  life  differed  some 
what  in  all  the  colonies,  and  a  thing  sometimes 
forgotten  is  that  the  house  furnishings  and  personal 
habits,  as  well  as  the  degrees  of  mental  culture, 
differ  with  every  advancing  decade.  Improved 
conditions  came  with  a  rapidity  that  was  unexam 
pled  until  that  time.  Because  the  first  New  Eng 
land  immigrants  were  obliged  to  live  in  moss- 
chinked  and  mud-plastered  log  huts,  it  does  not 
follow  that  they  long  continued  to  live  in  them. 
In  fact,  it  was  but  a  few  years  before  very  substan 
tial  and  comfortable  dwellings  were  erected  by  the 
better  class  in  all  the  colonies.  The  "  Old  Stone 
House"  of  Guilford,  Connecticut,  erected  in  1639, 
is  still  an  exceedingly  comfortable  and  even  hand 
some  residence,  though  it  has  been  damaged  by 
some  ill-judged  alterations  for  which  there  was  no 
excuse,  because  they  have  in  no  way  added  to  the 
convenience  or  comfort  of  the  inmates. 

Two  or  three  years  later  than  the  building  of  the 
Guilford  house,  there  was  erected  in  Hartford, 
Connecticut,  a  two-story  house  of  squared  timbers, 
covered  with  overlapping  shingles  on  the  sides,  for 
the  Rev.  Thomas  Hooker.  Of  this  house  a  cut  is 
given  in  Barbour's  "  Historical  Collections  of  Con 
necticut,"  which  shows  it  to  have  been  not  only  a 
substantial,  but,  though  a  simple,  yet  a  noticeable 
mansion  for  that  period  in  the  old  England  as 


10 


well  as  in  the  New.  The  house  erected  for  Mr. 
William  Whiting  about  the  same  time  is  said  to 
have  been  still  better.  The  house  furnishings  of 
Mr.  Hooker  and  Mr.  Whiting,  as  inventoried  after 
their  deaths,  would  not  seem  very  plentiful  or  lux 
urious  to-day,  but,  read  in  connection  with  the 
similar  inventories  of  the  same  date  belonging  to 
the  yeoman  or  petty  gentry  classes  in  England,  do 
not  show  many  marked  differences.  Even  when 
compared  with  the  inventories  of  the  larger  landed 
proprietors  in  England,  there  is  not  much  to  choose 
in  the  way  of  comforts,  though  undoubtedly  there 
is  in  that  of  articles  of  luxury  and  display.  In 
these  there  is  as  much  difference  between  the  pos 
sessions  of  Mr.  Hooker  and  Mr.  William  Whit 
ing  of  Hartford  and  those  of  an  English  gentleman 
of  high  social  grade,  as  there  is  between  an  English 
nobleman's  belongings  and  those  of  a  Frenchman 
of  similar  rank,  or  those  of  a  Hollander  of  the  rich 
merchant  class  at  the  same  period.  To  the  French 
nobleman  or  the  untitled  but  wealthy  Dutchman, 
the  interior  of  the  English  nobleman's  castle  must 
have  seemed  to  the  full  as  barren  of  beauty  and  of 
comfort  as  the  homes  of  the  Hartford  settlers 
would  have  seemed  to  all  of  them. 

A  few  years  later  than  the  deaths  of  Mr.  Hooker 
and  Mr.  Whiting,  the  recorded  inventories  grow 
longer  and  fuller.  Stools  gradually  disappear  from 
them  and  chairs  are  increasingly  in  evidence. 
Forks  are  not  named  until  well  on  to  the  opening 


11 


of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  then  they  are  of 
silver,  and  are  first  mentioned  in  the  will  of  a  citi 
zen  of  Boston  in  the  last  quarter  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  at  about  which  time  they  seem  to  have 
come  into  use  among  the  upper  classes  in  England, 
having  been  introduced  there  from  France  and 
Holland. 

It  may  be  taken  for  granted  that  the  wealthiest 
settlers  of  New  England  in  1630  were  a  little  better 
off  in  comforts  than  the  poorest  of  1650,  and  so  on. 
The  advance  was  continuous.  So  much  industry, 
intelligence,  energy,  and  invention  were  applied  to 
the  work  that  the  progress  was  marvelous. 

The  same  process  was  going  on  in  all  the  col 
onies.  The  Dutchman,  when  he  became  an  Eng 
lish  subject,  did  not  change  his  character  or  his 
ways,  but  his  growth  was  steady,  if,  perhaps,  a  trifle 
slower  than  that  of  his  English  neighbor.  It 
must  be  remembered  that  he  started  from  a  higher 
plane  of  comfort  (Holland  being  much  in  advance 
of  England  in  this  regard),  so  that  by  the  middle 
of  the  eighteenth  century  both  stood  upon  about 
the  same  level  in  these  things.  In  the  meanwhile, 
both  had  been  greatly  helped  by  the  incoming  of 
the  artistic,  polished,  and  thrifty  French  element. 
The  latter  brought  but  few  articles  of  luxury  or 
even  of  utility,  for,  like  the  persecuted  Armenians 
who  lately  sought  our  shores,  the  dangers  and  dif 
ficulties  of  their  escape  made  such  importations 
impossible;  but  they  brought  the  manufacturing 


12 


and  decorative  skill  to  supply  all  deficiencies,  and 
also  the  power  and  the  will  to  impart  their  skill, 
and  a  few  of  them,  like  the  Jays  of  Bedford,  had 
been  able  to  send  some  of  their  wealth  to  this 
country  in  advance  of  their  own  emigration.  Very 
little  of  all  that  was  left  behind  was  ever  regained. 
As  sources  of  knowledge  concerning  household 
possessions  of  the  colonists,  wills  and  the  inventories 
accompanying  them  have  been  too  much  relied 
upon  —  not  because  they  are  not  accurate,  for  this, 
of  course,  they  are,  but  because  they  do  not  cover 
ground  enough.  As  a  rule,  the  larger  the  estate 
the  less  likely  was  there  to  be  an  inventory  of 
household  possessions,  their  appraisement  and  divi 
sion  among  heirs  being  usually  made  by  agreement. 
In  several  distinct  lines  of  colonial  families  which 
I  have  traced  back  through  seven  and  eight  genera 
tions  to  the  years  beginning  with  1630,  I  have  dis 
covered  comparatively  few  wills,  and,  after  about 
1650,  these  were  seldom  accompanied  by  inven 
tories  of  household  possessions,,  Even  when  an 
estate  had  been  administered  upon,  in  ordinary 
cases  the  more  purely  personal  property  had  appa 
rently  been  divided  by  lot  or  private  agreement, 
without  public  appraisal.  Especially  is  this  found 
to  be  the  case  in  families  numbering  lawyers  among 
its  members.  In  such  families,  when  wills  were 
made,  some  person  was  nearly  always  named  as 
residuary  legatee,  in  order,  probably,  to  prevent 
the  necessity  for  giving  detailed  information  of 


such  purely  private  matters  to  a  curious  local 
public. 

From  the  extent  and  variety  of  my  researches  in 
this  line,  I  have  come  to  have  little  doubt  that  this 
aversion  to  recorded  inventories  of  household  pos 
sessions  was  stronger  in  proportion  to  the  wealth 
of  the  deceased.  Hence  it  is  unfair  to  suppose 
that  the  inventories  which  remain  give  accurate 
ideas  of  the  kinds  and  qualities  of  the  household 
furnishings  of  all  the  classes  in  a  colony. 

Perhaps  it  is  due  to  too  great  a  reliance  upon 
such  sources  of  information  that  many  persons  are 
in  the  habit  of  thinking  that  our  ancestors  possessed 
only  the  plainest,  most  uncouth,  and  most  comfort 
less  of  furnishings.  This  was  quite  true  of  even 
the  wealthy  among  the  first  comers,  but  it  speedily 
ceased  to  be  true  even  of  those  who  were  not 
wealthy.  The  first  immigrants  among  the  Puri 
tans  had  not  a  floor  carpet  among  their  possessions  ; 
but  the  number  used  in  England  in  the  first  half 
of  the  seventeenth  century  was  small,  and  they 
were  considered  quite  in  the  light  of  effeminate 
luxuries.  By  1660,  or  a  little  later,  the  always 
ugly  and  hard-to-be-swept,  but  all-enduring  (and 
much-inflicting)  rag  carpet  came  into  use,  while 
those  of  the  better  class  were  usually  provided  with 
several  of  the  excellent  and  easily  swept  but  equally 
ugly  yarn  carpets,  which  could  be  and  were  made 
in  those  private  families  who  were  rich  enough  to 
provide  the  material,  own  the  looms,  and  pay  for 


H 

the  weaving.  A  few  fine  carpets  were  imported 
from  the  Netherlands,  but  only  by  the  wealthiest 
colonists.  By  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury,  the  yarn  carpets  were  made  and  sold  by  vil 
lage  weavers,  and  had  thus  become  comparatively 
plentiful.  I  find  no  evidence  that  rag  carpets 
were  used  in  the  better  sort  of  houses,  except  in 
rear  passages  and  inferior  rooms.  Not  long  ago  it 
was  desired  to  restore  one  of  the  living-rooms  in 
the  most  venerated  house  in  North  America  to  its 
condition  in  the  years  between  1776  and  1800,  and 
preparations  were  made  by  one  of  our  patriotic 
societies  to  cover  its  floor  with  a  rag  carpet.  This 
seems  an  error  in  judgment.  As  Washington  im 
ported  most  of  the  finer  clothes  for  himself  and  his 
immediate  family,  as  well  as  their  rich  bed-hang 
ings,  their  handsomest  articles  of  furniture,  and  the 
best  of  wines  for  his  family  consumption,  it  is  hardly 
likely  that  he  did  not  follow  the  fashion  of  other 
gentlemen  of  his  social  rank,  and  import  carpets  for 
his  best  rooms,  while  using  those  of  woven  yarn 
for  all  inferior  purposes. 

At  one  time  there  was  a  general  impression  that 
all  the  immigrant  families  of  good  standing  had 
brought  over  with  them  many  rich  articles  of 
furniture,  much  silver  plate,  and  even  many  articles 
of  porcelain.  Later  on  it  had  to  be  acknowledged 
that  nothing  but  the  most  essential  of  household 
furnishings  could  have  been  permitted  on  vessels 
which  were  already  entirely  overcrowded  with  pas- 


sengers  and  the  animals  which  were  essential  to  life 
and  agriculture  in  the  new  land,  while  "  Mayflower 
tea-pots  "  became  a  laughing-stock  when  it  was  re 
membered  that  tea  did  not  come  into  use  in  Great 
Britain  until  many  years  after  the  landing  of  the 
Pilgrims. 

After  this  there  set  in  a  reaction,  and  now  the 
pendulum  has  swung  almost  as  far  the  ofjser  way. 
While  it  is  true  that  fine  furnishings  were  the  ex 
ception  in  the  colonies  as'lo.ng  as  they  continued 
to  be  such,  it  is  untrue  that  there  were  not  many 
families,  well  supplied  with  all  the  comforts  and 
luxuries  that  were  usual  in  families  of  similar  rank 
in  old  England.  There  is  now  in  the  possession 
of  a  descendant  of  the  original  owner,  and  in  perfect 
preservation,  a  handsomely  inlaid  mahogany  side 
board  of  the  sort  known  as  Chippendale,  which 
was  imported  by  a  Connecticut  farmer  in  1 737,  at  a 
cost,  including  that  of  transportation,  of  thirty-nine 
pounds  fifteen  shillings  sterling,  as  witnessed  by 
the  time-yellowed  receipted  bill  of  the  maker, 
which  is  still  preserved.  This  cannot  have  been 
an  isolated  instance,  yet  we  are  now  asked  to  believe 
that  the  stern  conditions  in  the  first  half-century  in 
the  colonies  prevailed  until  after  the  colonial  period 
had  passed  by. 

The  second  error  is  as  great  as  the  first.  The 
colonial  stage  of  our  existence  was  one  of  continual 
advancement.  The  colonists  were  of  different 
races,  of  different  social  grades,  of  differing  stages 


i6 


of  intellectual  growth,  of  varying  degrees  of  wealth  ; 
hence  they  cannot  be  judged 'by  inflexible  stan 
dards,  and  colonial  life  should  be  carefully  studied, 
almost  as  scholars  study  the  history  of  ancient 
Nineveh  and  Babylon.  From  the  scanty  fragments 
of  a  long-neglected  past  we  may  gather  our  alpha 
bet  and  learn  to  construct  our  sentences  aright. 


CHAPTER   II 

THE    CONTENTS   OF   AN   ANCIENT    GARRET 


THE  CONTENTS  OF  AN 
ANCIENT  GARRET. 


Sharon,  Connecticut. 
When  and  how  the  Town 

ship  was  Settled. 

The  Old  House:  how  it 

was  Constructed;  who 

Lived  in  it;  the  Papers 

it  Contained. 


beautiful  village  of  Sharon,  ly- 
ing  picturesquely  along  one  of  the 
broad  natural  terraces  which  form 
the  western  slopes  of  the  southern 
spurs  of  the  Berkshire  Hills,  was 
not  one  of  the  earliest  settlements  of  Connecticut. 
A  few  stragglers,  mostly  from  the  banks  of  the 
Hudson  River,  had  reared  their  temporary  homes 
in  this  vicinity  from  time  to  time,  but  these  had  for 
the  most  part  faded  away  when  the  township  was 
laid  out,  in  1 733,  and  it  was  not  until  several  years 
after  this  that  there  were  enough  inhabitants  to 
justify  an  application  to  the  Assembly  for  an  act  of 
incorporation.  Hence  it  would  hardly  be  expected 
that  papers  relating  to  the  very  earliest  colonial 
periods  should  be  found  here.  But  the  first  settlers 
of  Sharon  were  not  fresh  immigrants  from  the  Old 
World;  they  were  all,  or  nearly  all,  descended 
from  the  pioneer  colonists  of  New  England,  and 
naturally  brought  with  them  some  of  the  relics 
and  records  that  their  parents  and  grandparents 
had  accumulated. 

In  Sharon,  among  several  fine  houses  of  late 


20 


colonial  dates,  is  one  in  which,  during  more  than 
a  hundred  and  thirty  years,  six  generations  of 
one  family  have  lived  quiet  and  happy  but  full 
and  not  uninteresting  lives. 

In  the  wide  and  lofty  garrets  of  this  house  are 
stored  many  thousands  of  letters  and  other  papers 
such  as  generations  of  cultivated  and  undestructive 
persons  would  naturally  accumulate  around  them. 
Some  of  these  papers  are  packed  in  oaken  chests 
which  had  brought  household  plenishings  "across 
the  water "  in  the  early  days  of  the  seventeenth 
century ;  some  are  in  other  chests  of  cherry  wood, 
which  were  probably  made  in  this  country  in  the 
first  decades  of  the  colonial  period ;  some  are  in 
the  hair-covered,  brass-nailed,  and  round-topped 
trunks  of  a  later  day ;  some  are  discovered  packed 
in  bandboxes  which  may  once  have  contained 
elaborate  periwigs,  or  immense  and  costly  Leghorn 
bonnets;  and  again  we  find  papers,  valuable  or 
useless,  as  the  case  may  be,  tucked  away  under  the 
eaves  in  old  baskets  of  Indian  make,  or  in  open 
pine-wood  boxes,  and  even  in  barrels. 

Some  years  ago,  Mrs.  E.  P.  Terhune  (Marion 
Harland)  visited  this  old  house,  and  in  her  valuable 
and  altogether  charming  book  concerning  "  Some 
Colonial  Homesteads  and  their  Stories  "  has  men 
tioned  the  old  garret  and  its  papers.  She  says  : 

"  We  climb  the  stairs  to  the  great  garret.  A 
large,  round  window,  like  an  eye,  is  set  in  a  gable ; 
the  roof  slopes  above  a  vast  space,  where  the  towns- 


21 


people  used  to  congregate  for  dance  and  speech- 
making  and  church  'entertainments'  before  a  pub 
lic  hall  was  built;  .  .  .  and  in  the  middle  of  the 
dusky  spaciousness,  a  long,  long  table  over  which 
is  cast  a  white  cloth.  .  .  .  Family  papers !  .  .  . 
Hampers,  corded  boxes,  and  trunks  full  of  them ! 
The  hopes,  the  dreads,  the  loves,  the  lives  of  nine 
generations  of  one  blood  and  name/'  But  the  last 
clause  is  hardly  correct.  The  nine  generations 
who  are  represented  here  are  of  several  names  and 
even  of  differing  nationalities;  but  the  blood  of 
them  all  is  mingled  in  the  veins  of  their  descen 
dants,  the  present  owners  of  the  old  house. 

During  all  the  years  that  these  old  papers  were 
accumulating  they  were  carefully  dusted  once  or 
twice  a  year,  but  not  always  replaced  in  their  va 
rious  receptacles  with  the  reverential  care  which 
they  deserved.  Indeed,  it  is  known  that  during 
the  dozen  years  or  so  which  succeeded  1845,  ser" 
vants  who  had  neglected  to  provide  kindlings  for 
the  fires  were  occasionally  permitted  to  use  the 
garret's  store  of  papers  for  their  purpose.  Not 
withstanding  this  culpable  carelessness,  great  quan 
tities  still  remained  at  the  time  that  my  interest  in 
them  was  first  aroused,  now  a  great  many  years 
ago.  From  these  papers  the  larger  part  of  the 
materials  for  the  following  chapters  has  been  culled, 
though  some  of  the  things  that  are  here  related  are 
on  the  authority  of  family  traditions,  notes  of  which 
I  began  taking  when  I  was  eleven  years  old,  as  I 


22 


heard  them  narrated  by  parents,  grandparents,  and 
great-uncles  and  -aunts.  These  notes  I  continued 
to  take  at  intervals  for  about  eighteen  years,  by  the 
end  of  which  time  many  of  the  beloved  narrators 
had  gone  to  rejoin  those  whom  they  had  held 
in  such  faithful  and  affectionate  remembrance. 
Whenever  anything  is  told  on  the  authority  of 
traditions  only,  it  is  thus  expressly  stated;  but 
most  of  the  information  is  from  the  abundant  store 
of  written  sources. 

The  house  in  which  the  before-mentioned  papers 
had  been  preserved  is  a  fine  specimen  of  the  best 
period  of  our  colonial  architecture.  The  part  which 
is  now  a  capacious  wing,  running  back  from  the 
main  structure,  was  the  first  to  be  erected,  and  was 
reared  on  the  foundations  of  a  still  earlier  building. 
This  first  portion  of  the  new  home  was  completed 
about  1 765  and  was  in  itself  a  spacious  dwelling. 
The  cellars  and  kitchen  were  in  its  basement,  and 
a  very  large  dining-hall,  with  two  other  good-sized 
rooms,  were  on  its  first  floor.  These  were  flanked 
by  piazzas  (or  rather  stoefs)  on  the  north  and 
south  sides.  The  wing's  bedrooms  were  on  the 
second  floor,  with  windows  in  the  long,  sloping 
roof,  whose  peak  was  filled  by  a  garret  of  good 
dimensions. 

In  this  broad  and  comfortable  dwelling,  the 
owner,  Simeon  Smith,  M.D.,  lived  with  his  family 
while  the  very  much  larger  main  house  was  in  the 
process  of  construction.  And  a  slow  process  it  was 


in  those  laborious  days  !  Just  when  the  wing  was 
begun  we  do  not  know,  but  as  it  is  of  the  same 
well-cut  stone  as  the  main  house,  which  was  not 
finished  until  some  time  during  the  Revolutionary 
War,  we  may  hardly  credit  it  with  consuming 
much  less  than  three  years.  There  were  then  no 
steam-drills  to  assist  in  cutting  the  finely  fitted 
stones.  Water-power  sawmills  existed  in  this 
region  at  the  time,  and  such  planks  as  were  used 
in  the  building  were  mostly  sawed  by  them ;  but 
all  the  heavy  timbers  —  and  very  heavy  they  are 
-  appear  to  have  been  hewn  with  the  carpenter's 
broadax,  while  the  matchings  of  the  floor-boards 
were  all  cut  by  hand. 

The  walls  of  both  the  wing  and  the  main  house 
were  very  solidly  built  of  deftly  fitted  stones,  laid 
with  a  fine  regard  for  shape  and  color,  and  are 
from  sixteen  inches  to  two  feet  in  thickness.  The 
windows  are  surrounded  by  ornamental  settings  of 
red  brick,  which  are  of  an  unusually  large  size. 
The  rear  wall  of  the  main  house  was  built  up 
against  the  exterior  of  the  western  gable  of  the 
wing,  and  the  two  walls  thus  joined  are  fifty-two 
inches  thick  where  a  large  doorway  connects  the 
two  structures.  It  is  said  that  the  foundations  of 
the  main  house  were  begun  before  the  completion 
of  the  walls  of  the  wing,  and  were  allowed  to  stand 
through  the  frosts  of  several  successive  winters  "  so 
that  they  might  be  well  settled."  The  whole 
work  was  under  the  direction  of  a  Genoese  archi- 


24 

tect,  who  is  stated  to  have  been  a  political  exile, 
and  who  brought  some  of  his  countrymen  as  assis 
tants.  The  mortar  he  used  is  to-day  as  firm  as  the 
stone  it  cements,  and  is  the  admiration  of  modern 
architects  and  masons.  I  have  often  heard  my 
grandfather  say  that  his  great-uncle,  for  whom  the 
house  was  built,  had  told  him  that  the  Genoese 
was  so  jealous  lest  some  one  should  discover  the 
secret  of  this  mortar  that  he  set  guards  and  took 
other  precautions  to  keep  away  all  intruders  while 
he  was  mixing  it.  Probably  the  secret  of  its  en 
during  quality  is  in  the  fact  that  very  finely  pow 
dered  stone  and  brick  were  used  in  the  place  of 
sand.  With  the  purely  manual  labor  of  those 
days,  this  alone  would  have  made  the  building  a 
slow  affair. 

The  foundations  being  considered  sufficiently 
settled,  the  superstructure  of  the  main  building  be 
gan  to  rise  in  1773,  and  wras  roofed  and  its  walls 
plastered  by  the  opening  of  the  campaign  of  1775. 
From  this  time  onward  there  was  little  thought  to 
bestow  upon  so  personal  a  matter  as  the  building 
of  a  dwelling-house.  Country-building  was  a 
much  more  important  business. 

In  the  early  summer  of  1775,  the  widowed  Mrs. 
Samuel  Smith,  formerly  of  Suffield,  Connecticut, 
and  then  living  with  her  youngest  son,  Simeon, 
saw  her  second  son,  the  Rev.  Cotton  Mather 
Smith,  depart  as  chaplain  to  Colonel  Hinman's 
regiment,  in  General  Schuyler's  army  at  Ticon- 


deroga,  where  he  remained  until  incapacitated 
for  further  duty  by  the  camp-fever.  A  year  later 
the  old  lady  bade  a  Spartan  mother's  God-speed 
to  her  son,  Dr.  Simeon  Smith,  who,  as  captain  of 
a  company  of  Sharon  men,  equipped  largely  at  his 
own  expense,  joined  the  troops  under  General 
Washington's  immediate  command,  enduring  all 
the  hardships  and  misfortunes  of  the  Long  Island 
campaign.  What  was  house-building  compared 
to  such  work  as  this  —  even  the  erection  of  a 
house  originally  intended  to  have  been  one  of  the 
finest  in  New  England  ?  Its  owner  worked  for 
and  believed  in  better  days  to  come,  and  did  not 
relinquish  his  plans ;  but  they  were  necessarily  slow 
in  fulfilment,  and  the  main  house,  though  occupied 
in  1777  and  onward,  was  not  fully  finished  until 
after  the  peace,  and  even  then  not  entirely  in 
consonance  with  the  original  designs. 

From  this  date  onward  until  about  1830  the 
great  garret,  which  spreads  over  the  entire  main 
house,  was  frequently  used  as  a  substitute  for  a 
public  hall.  In  it  school  exhibitions  and  exami 
nations  were  held  twice  yearly,  and  for  every  form 
of  village  entertainment  which  was  esteemed  to  be 
too  high  in  its  aims  to  be  fittingly  placed  in  the 
tavern,  or  too  secular  for  the  church,  the  lofty 
and  spacious  garret  was  generously  offered.  Dec 
orated  with  evergreens  and  home-made  flags,  it 
made  a  pleasing  and  commodious  place  for  social 
gatherings. 


26 


Probably  even  at  this  time  papers  had  begun  to 
accumulate  in  the  spaces  under  the  steep  slopes  of 
the  hipped  roof  between  the  dormer-windows  along 
the  sides  and  ends  of  the  old  garret;  for,  in  1788. 
Dr.  Smith,  writing  from  Vermont,  requests  his 
nephew  to  "  Look  in  the  big  cedar  chest  which 
Mother  brought  from  Suffield,  and  which  stands  at 
the  very  south  end  of  my  big  Garret,  and  you  will 
find  there  the  deeds  of  the  Judge  Badcock  farm 
which  I  wish  to  have  sent  to  me  by  some  safe 
hand." 

The  mass  of  papers  remaining  here  include 
many  thousands  of  letters,  several  diaries,  a  great 
number  of  legal  documents  of  both  public  and 
private  natures,  as  well  as  piles  of  antiquated  led 
gers,  bound,  for  the  most  part,  in  a  sort  of  undressed 
leather,  and  big  enough  to  have  required  an  entire 
sheepskin  for  each  tome.  This  mass  of  unassorted 
papers  spreads  over  all  the  years,  from  the  landings 
of  the  earlier  immigrants  in  Massachusetts  and 
Connecticut,  down  to  near  the  middle  of  the  pres 
ent  century.  Naturally,  the  number  of  documents 
that  have  survived  from  the  hundred  years  begin 
ning  with  1636  is  not  as  large  as  we  would  wish; 
but  from  about  1730  the  number  began  to  increase, 
and  from  1754  onward  the  material  —  though  often 
leaving  gaps  just  where  they  are  most  unwelcome 
—  is  remarkably  abundant. 

From  these  sources  I  have  drawn  what  I  believe 
to  be,  though  incomplete,  yet,  as  far  as  they  ex- 


tend,  faithful  pictures  of  the  home  life  of  the  better 
class  of  persons  in  several  places  and  periods  of  our 
colonial  existence. 

Such  information  as  we  may  gather  from  town 
and  church  records  is  invaluable  in  its  way;  but 
from  such  sources  we  need  not  expect  to  get  any 
but  the  scantiest  glimpses  of  the  home  life.  We 
now  have  daily  newspapers  and  society  journals  to 
chronicle  public  and  private  events,  and  they  cer 
tainly  tell  a  great  deal  about  the  daily  life  of  all 
classes  among  us ;  yet  if,  two  centuries  hence,  these 
things  should  be  the  only  testimony  that  had  sur 
vived,  can  we  conceive  that  our  homes  might  be 
justly  pictured  from  them  ?  Or  should  we  fare 
any  better  if  judged  by  the  records  of  the  law- 
courts?  Yet  these  would  be  riches  compared 
with  the  meager  sources  which  have  come  to  us 
from  colonial  days.  Concerning  the  homes  and 
home  life  of  the  colonists  our  best  materials  must 
come  from  the  comparatively  few  traditions  that 
were  committed  to  paper  long  enough  ago  to  be 
granted  a  measure  of  authenticity,  and  from  the 
relatively  few  contemporary  family  papers  which 
have  escaped  from  the  inevitable  losses  by  fires, 
removals,  and  —  worst  of  all  —  the  destruction  by 
the  Gallios  who  "  cared  for  none  of  these  things," 
until  a  tardily  awakened  interest  in  our  ancestry 
has  caused  many  of  the  heedless  transgressors  to 
remember  and  shudder  at  the  bonfires  fed  by  such 
unprized  but  now  priceless  material. 


28 


This  little  book  relates  what  I  have  patiently 
gleaned  concerning  the  home  life  of  a  few  fairly 
representative  families  in  the  colonies  of  New 
York  and  Connecticut.  These  families  were  ori 
ginally  of  several  nationalities  —  English,  Dutch, 
Scotch,  and  French  Huguenots ;  yet,  in  the  course 
of  generations,  all  became  related.  Papers  once 
belonging  to  or  concerning  each  one  of  them,  some 
of  them  unknown  to  each  other  even  by  name 
until  long  years  after  the  papers  were  written,  and 
some  of  them  never  so  known,  have  long  been 
lying  side  by  side  in  the  silent  garret,  and  the 
descendants  of  the  writers  of  most  of  the  diaries 
and  correspondence  may  now  be  found  scattered 
from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  and  from  Canada 
to  the  Gulf. 

In  the  earliest  of  these  papers  we  find  evidence 
of  great  privations  heroically  endured  —  not  from 
hope  of  worldly  advantage,  but  from  the  highest 
of  motives.  The  gently  born  and  bred,  the  con- 
scientious  laborer,  the  strictest  Puritan,  the  Scotch 
Presbyterian,  the  sturdy  Dutch  Calvinist,  and  the 
patient  Huguenot  were  all  alike  upheld  by  their 
sturdy  faith  in  God  and  righteousness.  They 
made  mistakes  enough,  all  of  them  —  the  Puritan 
perhaps  more  than  the  rest,  because  he  was  Anglo- 
Saxon,  and  therefore  could  never  imagine  himself 
to  be  in  the  wrong  about  any  matter,  and,  in  the 
large  generosity  of  his  nature,  was  always  ready  to 
instruct  less  gifted  mortals,  who  did  not  always 


29 


appreciate  his  unasked  services  at  the  value  he  set 
upon  them.  But  the  errors  of  the  Puritan,  like 
the  errors  of  most  well  intentioned  persons,  are  but 
the  defects  of  his  qualities,  and  a  vast  deal  too  much 
has  been  made  of  them. 

It  is  a  law  of  nature  that  those  who  have  had 
the  hardest  lives  shall  become  the  most  rigid  in 
character,  and  the  New-Englanders  have  always 
had  the  fame  of  having  fulfilled  this  natural  law  to 
an  undue,  even  to  an  unnatural,  extent,  being  harsh 
to  cruelty  to  all  who  displeased  them,  including 
their  own  sons  and  daughters;  but  in  this  garret 
full  of  papers,  mostly  written  by  persons  who  were 
Calvinists  of  Calvinists,  Puritans  of  the  straitest 
sect,  I  am  happy  to  state  that  I  have  found  many 
evidences  of  kindnesses  most  tenderly  bestowed 
and  gratefully  received,  and  of  deeds  of  a  large- 
minded  tolerance  and  charity,  as  well  as  of  tender 
and  even  demonstrative  affection,  including  a  good 
deal  of  jocose  familiarity  between  parents  and  chil 
dren.  On  the  other  hand,  I  have  found  record  of 
but  very  few  things  that  manifest  intolerance  or  hard 
feelings ;  and  these  were  all  in  the  earlier  years, 
when  the  harshness  engendered  by  the  persecutions 
from  which  the  colonists  had  fled  and  by  the  ter 
rors  of  the  wilderness  to  which  they  had  come  had 
not  had  time  to  mellow  into  patience  and  forbear 
ance.  Neither  (except  in  the  papers  relating  to 
suits  at  law  which  had  been  conducted  by  or  be 
fore  one  of  the  ablest  lawyers  and  judges  of  his 


3° 

time,  and  with  which  none  of  the  families  or  per 
sons  connected  with  those  whose  lives  we  picture 
had  anything  to  do)  is  there  aught  to  show  malice, 
trickery,  or  disgrace  of  any  sort.  These  family 
records  are  simple,  but,  thank  God  !  they  are  clean. 

The  material  hardships  of  the  new  land  were 
very  great,  but  most  severely  felt  were  the  trials  of 
homesickness,  the  longing  for  a  sight  or  a  token 
of  those  who  had  been  left  in  the  homes  beyond 
the  sea,  and  the  lack  of  facilities  for  the  mental 
culture  of  their  children.  The  determination  to 
reduce  the  latter  difficulty  as  soon  as  might  be  was 
evidenced  in  the  early  establishment  of  the  two 
upper-grade  schools  which  were  ambitiously  termed 
the  colleges  of  Harvard  and  Yale,  so  called  not 
because  of  what  they  were  or  could  be  at  the  start, 
but  because  of  the  high  standing  to  which  it  was 
confidently  hoped  they  would  ultimately  attain. 

Rudimentary  schools  were  defective  in  many 
ways,  but  the  teachers  did  their  best  to  make  zeal 
atone  for  the  lack  of  other  essentials.  The  grand 
children  of  the  first  immigrants  appear  to  have 
suffered  much  more  from  the  want  of  proper  in 
struction  than  did  the  preceding  and  the  next  fol 
lowing  generation,  but  never,  from  first  to  last,  did 
they  cease  to  set  the  highest  value  upon  intellectual 
cultivation  or  fail  of  using  every  means  in  their 
power  to  secure  for  their  children  the  advantages 
of  a  "polite  education,"  a  phrase  which  is  repeated 
hundreds  of  times  in  these  old  letters.  Spelling 


1L 


was  evidently  considered  as  a  matter  of  the  slight 
est  consequence  by  the  first  settlers  as  well  as  their 
successors.  I  have  preserved  the  orthography  of 
the  originals  in  the  papers  from  which  I  have 
quoted,  in  deference  to  the  views  of  others  rather 
than  my  own,  because  it  seems  to  me  to  convey  a 
wrong  impression  regarding  the  degree  of  cultiva 
tion  of  the  writers.  English  is  even  now  the  worst 
spelled  language  in  the  world,  and  in  days  not  so 
very  long  past  dictionaries  were  rare  and  costly, 
besides  which  they  differed  widely  between  them 
selves. 

Partly  because  I  have  lived  so  long  in  the  com 
panionship  of  the  old  papers,  and  partly  because 
in  my  youth  I  listened  with  such  an  intense  inter 
est  to  the  family  traditions  as  they  fell  from  the 
lips  of  wonderfully  gifted  narrators,  whose  words 
clothed  the  dead  with  life,  bringing  them  before 
the  eye  and  making  their  voices  distinct  to  the  ear, 
all  the  persons  of  whose  simple  ways  of  living  I 
have  tried  to  give  glimpses  seem  as  familiarly 
known  to  me  as  are  the  dear  relatives  through 
whom  so  much  that  concerned  their  ancestry  was 
transmitted  to  me. 

And  why  should  it  not  be  so  ?  The  old  letters 
are  still  pulsing  with  the  inner  life  of  those  who 
have  merely  stepped  beyond  the  curtain.  Their 
loves,  their  fears,  their  hopes,  their  aspirations,  their 
faiths,  their  daily  occupations  —  did  not  these  things 
form  the  real  men  and  women?  And  all  these 


32 

have  been  faithfully  preserved  in  the  unaffected 
chronicles  of  fathers  and  mothers,  brothers  and 
sisters,  friends  and  lovers,  who  wrote  for  the  limited 
circle  of  those  whom  they  loved  and  who  loved 
them ;  and  prove  them  to  be  worthy  of  the  love 
of  those  who  came  after  them. 


CHAPTER   III 

A   PIONEER    PARSON 


CHAPTER  III. 

A  PIONEER  PASTOR. 

Rev.  Henry  Smith  of 
Wethersfield,  Connecti 
cut. 

Troubles  of  a  Wilderness 

Church. 
Letter  from  Samuel  Smith 

of  Hadley,  Massachu 
setts,  in   1698,  describing 
,    Early  Days  in  Wethers- 
field. 
The  Minister's  Will. 


|N  New  England  the  life  of  family, 
church,  and  town  began  together. 
The  immigrants  mostly  came  in 
families.  Of  bachelors  there  were  a 
few ;  but  these,  by  wise  forethought, 
were  attached,  at  least  temporarily,  to  some  one  of 
the  families  very  soon  after  the  landing,  if  not 
actually  during  the  voyage.  As  the  earliest  colo 
nists  were  almost  wholly  persons  who  came  here 
through  religious  motives,  such  heads  of 'families 
as  were  of  the  most  social  note  were  naturally 
among  the  most  active  in  church  matters,  and 
therefore  in  those  of  the  town;  for  during  many 
years  the  church  was  practically  the  town  also, 
the  elders  or  deacons  of  the  one  usually  being  the 
selectmen  of  the  other. 

The  church  edifice  could  not  be  erected  at  as 
early  a  date  as  the  houses ;  but  in  many  cases  the 
church  had  been  organized  even  before  the  selec 
tion  of  the  town  site,  and  the  most  commodious 
of  the  dwellings  was  used  as  a  meeting-house  as 
soon  as  it  could  afford  a  shelter  from  the  weather. 
By  prescriptive  rights  the  ministers  were  the  lead- 

35 


36 

ing  citizens  in  each  town.  They  were  often,  per 
haps  generally,  men  of  gentle  birth,  and  usually 
graduates  of  one  of  the  leading  universities  —  most 
frequently  of  Cambridge,  that  "  nursery  of  Puritan 
ism  ";  thus  they  were  naturally  the  social  as  well 
as  the  spiritual  leaders  of  their  people.  As  eccle 
siastics  they  seem  to  have  deemed  themselves,  and 
to  have  been  esteemed  by  their  congregations,  to 
be  divine-right  priests  and  Levites,  with  authority 
to  declare  and  enforce  the  law  of  the  Lord.  Yet 
it  is  said  that  the  title  of  Reverend  was  not  used  in 
New  England  until  1670;  ministers  before  that 
time  being  called  Mister,  Pastor,  Teacher,  or  Elder, 
save  in  a  few  instances  where  deceased  ministers 
were  spoken  of  as  Reverend  Elders.  To  their 
honor  be  it  spoken  that,  notwithstanding  their 
conceded  superiority,  there  were  very  few  of  these 
ministers  who  did  not  bear  themselves  as  servants 
under  authority  and  strictly  accountable  to  the 
Master  whom  they  loyally  served  for  the  just  ex 
ercise  of  the  power  which  he  had  delegated  to 
them.  They  ruled  their  people,  but  it  was  with  a 
father's  despotism  —  as  loving  and  as  gentle  as  it 
was  strong. 

With  a  few  exceptions,  the  rule  of  the  pastors 
was,  for  more  than  a  century,  almost  unquestioned, 
because  it  was  in  the  main  both  wise  and  unselfish. 
In  the  family  life  of  the  colonial  pastors  we  find 
the  beginnings  of  all  that  is  best  in  the  history  of 
our  country :  the  charity  that  begins  at  home,  but 


37 

is  not  confined  to  family,  church,  or  township;  the 
warm  affections,  the  sturdy  honesty,  the  firm  ad 
herence  to  what  is  deemed  to  be  right;  the  cou 
rageous  confession  when  a  wrong  is  recognized, 
and,  as  speedily  as  may  be,  a  contrite  atonement 
made.  It  has  been  said  of  the  half-century  pastor 
ate  of  a  descendant  of  the  pioneer  pastor  the  faint 
traces  of  whose  footsteps  we  are  now  about  to  fol 
low, —  and  the  words  apply  to  many  others, —  that 
"  The  town's  history  from  the  day  of  the  Pastor's 
installation  might  almost  be  said  to  be  his  biogra 
phy,  with  a  few  foot  notes  of  other  things.  .  .  .  He 
was  a  kind  of  college  in  himself  .  .  .  sending  out, 
like  class  after  class,  the  influences,  the  growths 
and  inspirations  of  his  large  nature  upon  the  lives 
of  the  men  and  women  of  his  flock." 

Trumbull,  in  his  history  of  Connecticut,  having 
previously  designated  the  chief  settlers  of  Windsor 
and  Hartford,  names  those  of  Wethersfield,  giving 
Mr.  Henry  Smith  as  among  the  latter,  and  adds : 
"  These  were  the  civil  and  religious  Fathers  of  a 
Colony  that  formed  its  free  and  happy  constitution, 
they  were  its  legislators  and  some  of  the  chief 
pillars  of  the  church  and  commonwealth,  they  .  .  . 
employed  their  ability  and  their  estates  for  the 
prosperity  of  the  Colony." 

Nearly  half,  if  not  more  than  half,  of  the  stanch 
first  settlers  of  Connecticut  had  left  England  after 
the  opening  of  the  eleven  years  of  terror  which  be 
gan  with  the  prorogation  of  Parliament  in  1629. 


38 

During  these  years  Archbishop  Laud  and  the  Earl 
of  StrafFord  were  held  by  the  loyal-hearted  among 
the  people  to  be  responsible  for  all  the  sins  of  their 
master,  and  doubtless  some  of  the  odium  that  the 
advisers  received  was  richly  merited ;  but  Laud, 
at  least,  although  a  bigot  and  a  fanatic,  was  both 
able  and  honest,  while  Charles  had  all  the  bigotry 
and  the  fanaticism,  without  the  honesty,  of  him 
whom  he  made  his  tool. 

Very  heavy  fines,  the  loss  of  stipends  justly  due, 
and  imprisonment  for  too  great  freedom  of  speech, 
were  among  the  minor  punishments  inflicted  upon 
the  clergy  and  laymen  who  did  not  acquiesce  in  the 
doctrines  inculcated  by  those  in  authority.  These, 
and  the  despair  of  better  days  coming  in  the  old 
England,  were  the  considerations  which  drove  the 
great  body  of  our  Puritan  settlers  to  take  the 
desperate  step  of  emigrating  to  the  New  England. 
Even  this  was  not  permitted  without  much  oppo 
sition  from  the  officers  of  the  crown.  A  few 
persons  would  meet  privately,  agree  upon  one  or 
two  men  as  leaders,  and  empower  them  to  secure 
and  charter  a  suitable  ship,  shipmaster,  and  crew, 
and  to  lay  in  the  necessary  stores  for  the  voyage 
and  the  subsequent  plantation  in  the  wilderness. 
Those  who  wished  to  join  the  adventure  were 
obliged  to  sell  their  landed  estates  or  other  prop 
erty,  and  also  to  purchase  their  personal  supplies, 
mostly  at  a  great  disadvantage  on  account  of  the 
necessary  secrecy.  At  all  ports  of  possible  depar- 


39 

ture  the  government's  spies  were  constantly  on  the 
lookout  to  report  tokens  of  intention  to  escape. 
Detection  made  arrest  certain,  and  imprisonment 
and  confiscation  of  property  almost  as  certain. 

The  cost  of  transportation  of  human  beings,  cat 
tle,  or  freight,  in  the  miserable  little  vessels  of 
the  time,  was  —  considering  the  difference  in  the 
purchasing  power  of  money  —  enormous.  The 
company  which  went  to  Watertown,  Massachu 
setts,  brought  with  them  one  hundred  and  eighty 
servants,  whose  passage  cost  the  company  an  ave 
rage  of  something  over  eighty-three  dollars  each, 
which  was  probably  equivalent  to  about  two  hun 
dred  and  fifty  dollars  of  our  present  currency.  At 
this  rate  the  transportation  of  a  large  family,  with 
servants  and  domestic  animals,  agricultural  imple 
ments,  other  essential  tools  and  provisions,  not 
only  for  the  voyage,  but  for  twelve  or  more  months 
thereafter,  and  even  the  most  modest  outfits  of  per 
sonal  and  household  effects,  must  have  gone  far 
toward  exhausting  the  funds  which  the  adventurers 
might  have  derived  from  the  necessarily  disadvan 
tageous  sales  of  their  property. 

It  was  from  Watertown  that  a  great  part  of  the 
Connecticut  Colony  came.  Some  persons  were 
sent  ahead,  in  the  summer  of  1635,  to  prepare 
temporary  quarters  for  the  families.  The  latter, 
numbering  sixty  persons  in  all,  men,  women,  and 
children,  began  to  move  in  October  of  the  same 
yean  The  journey,  which  was  necessarily  on  foot, 


4° 

-  there  being  no  paths  save  the  Indian  trails,  and 
very  few,  if  any,  beasts  of  burden, —  was  so  long 
that  winter  came  weeks  before  the  poor  creatures 
were  nearly  ready  for  it.  "By  November  15th," 
says  Trumbull,  "  the  Connecticut  River  was  frozen 
over  and  the  snow  upon  it  was  so  deep  that  a  con 
siderable  number  of  the  cattle  that  had  been  so 
painfully  driven  from  Massachusetts,  could  not  be 
got  across  the  River.  The  sufferings  of  man  and 
beast  were  extreme.  Their  principal  provisions 
and  household  furniture  had  been  sent  around  in 
several  small  vessels  to  come  up  the  River.  Several 
of  these  were  wrecked.  Great  numbers  of  the 
cattle  perished."  The  following  summer  the  Rev. 
Thomas  Hooker  headed  the  second  company  com 
ing  from  Watertown.  It  was  a  pleasanter  coming, 
owing  to  the  more  propitious  season,  and  made 
forever  both  picturesque  and  pathetic  by  the  pres 
ence  of  the  litter  bearing  poor,  patient  Mrs.  Hooker, 
carried  as  tenderly  as  might  be  by  the  willing 
hands  of  her  husband's  parishioners  and  fellow- 
pioneers. 

Although  the  Rev.  Henry  Smith  is  historically 
called  the  "  first  settled  pastor  of  the  first  settled 
town  in  Connecticut,"  it  is  not  probable  that  he 
came  with  either  of  the  first  two  bands  from 
Watertown,  but  with  a  later  one.  A  few  log 
cabins  were  built  in  what  subsequently  became 
known  as  the  "  town  of  Weathersfield "  even 
before  the  first  settlers  reached  Windsor.  Thus 


4* 

Wethersfield  claims  to  be  the  first  settled  town  in 
the  State,  and  Mr.  Smith  was  its  first  settled  pastor, 
though  he  was  not  installed  as  such  until  after  Mr. 
Hooker  and  Mr.  Warham  were  officiating  in 
Hartford  and  in  Windsor.  It  is  not  recorded  just 
when  Mr.  Smith  came  to  Wethersfield,  but  he 
was  residing  there  and  received  his  allotment  at 
the  first  apportionment  of  the  town  lands. 

Mr.  Smith  had  reached  this  country,  going  first 
to  Watertown,  in  1636  or  1637.  While  the  rule 
in  New  England  pastorates  was  that  the  pastor  was 
literally  as  well  as  figuratively  the  head  of  an  obe 
dient  flock,  which  paid  him  all  due  deference,  and 
followed  his  lead  as  sheep  follow  the  piping  of 
the  shepherd,  the  pastors  who  successively  essayed 
the  charge  of  the  church  in  Wethersfield  were  the 
unfortunate  exceptions.  In  no  sense  could  Mr. 
Smith  have  found  his  new  pastorate  a  bed  of  roses. 
Besides  the  privations  and  hardships  common  to 
all  pioneer  pastors,  there  seems  to  have  been  a 
strong  and  most  unusual  element  of  turbulence  in 
the  membership  of  this  wilderness  church,  for  two 
preceding  ministers  had  tried  and  failed  to  unite 
the  members  of  the  congregation  sufficiently  to 
secure  a  settlement,  and  the  trouble  did  not  im 
mediately  cease  upon  Mr.  Smith's  installation. 
Previous  to  or  about  the  time  of  his  settlement  in 
Wethersfield  the  most  prominent  of  the  insurgents, 
under  advice  of  the  Rev.  John  Davenport  and  others, 
had  removed  to  Stamford;  yet  the  restless  spirits 


who  were  left  found  enough  to  say  against  Mr. 
Smith's  ministry  during  the  next  few  years. 
There  is  evidence  tending  to  show  that  he  may 
have  been  too  liberal  in  his  construction  of  doc 
trinal  views,  and  inclined  to  too  great  charity  in 
matters  of  personal  conduct,  to  suit  the  more  rigid 
among  the  townsmen.  In  at  least  one  instance 
matters  went  so  far  that  the  pastor  was  brought 
before  the  General  Court  on  charges  the  nature  of 
which  is  not  now  apparent;  but  it  is  recorded  that 
fines  which  for  that  day  were  very  heavy  were 
laid  upon  certain  individuals  "  for  preferring  a  list 
of  grievances  against  Mr.  Smith  and  failing  to 
prove  in  the  prosecution  thereof."  From  references 
to  this,  which  appear  in  manuscript  of  about  a  cen 
tury  after  this  date,  referring  to  this  trial  as  a  thing 
still  remembered,  it  would  seem  that  Mr.  Smith 
was  opposed  to  seventy  in  church  discipline, 
and  also  to  the  importation  into  the  Connecticut 
Colony  of  the  bribe  to  hypocrisy  which  was  offered 
by  the  law  restricting  to  church-members  the  right 
of  suffrage  in  town  as  well  as  church  matters; 
and  that  he  also  preferred  to  believe  an  accused 
man  to  be  innocent  until  he  was  proved  guilty, 
and  even  then  did  not  believe  in  proceeding  to 
extremities  until  after  every  gentle  means  had  been 
tried  in  vain. 

One  cause  of  animadversion  is  said  to  have  been 
that  Mr.  Smith  had  advocated  the  separation  of  a 
wife  from  a  drunken  husband  who  had  frightfully 


43 

abused  her  and  her  children.  This  seems  to  have 
been  thought  by  some  members  of  the  congrega 
tion  to  indicate  great  laxity  of  moral  principle  on 
the  part  of  the  pastor ;  but  evidently  the  majority 
of  the  people  were  with  him  on  these  and  other 
disputed  points,  and  so  were  his  friends,  Mr. 
Thomas  Hooker,  the  beloved  pastor  of  the  church 
at  Hartford,  and  Mr.  Warham  of  Windsor.  An 
other  complaint  against  Mr.  Smith  was  that  he 
refused  to  listen  to  those  who  brought  him  reports 
concerning  alleged  infractions  of  church  discipline, 
on  the  ground  that  many  of  these  things  were  mat 
ters  which  lay  solely  between  a  man  and  his 
Maker.  In  the  end  Mr.  Smith  carried  the  church 
with  him,  and  when  he  died,  in  1648,  he  was  sin 
cerely  mourned  even  by  those  who  at  one  time 
had  "despitefully  used  "  him. 

Mr.  Smith  is  said  to  have  been  "a  scholarly 
man  of  gentle  birth  and  breeding,  a  persuasive 
preacher  and  a  loyal  friend."  What  his  salary 
may  have  been  does  not  appear,  but  the  stipends  of 
other  pastors  of  his  day  rarely  exceeded  from  seventy 
to  seventy-five  pounds  per  annum.  Much  of  this 
nominal  sum  was  paid  "  in  kind,"  that  is,  in  farm 
produce  or  in  peltries,  which  last  were  considered 
as  the  equivalent  of  cash,  always  bringing  their 
fair  price  in  the  English  markets.  One  hundred 
pounds  per  annum,  paid  in  very  much  the  same 
way,  was  an  exceptionally  good  salary  more  than 
one  hundred  and  twenty-five  years  later. 


44 

Indians  were  a  very  real  and  imminent  danger 
in  the  early  days  of  Wethersfield.  Their  depre 
dations  were  frequent,  and  the  dread  of  them  was 
never-ceasing.  We  do  not  know  whether  the  first 
meeting-house  of  Wethersfield,  which  was  prob 
ably  the  only  one  erected  during  Mr.  Smith's  pas 
torate,  was  built  of  logs  or  was  a  frame  structure, 
but  we  are  certain  that  it  was  intended  to  serve 
not  only  as  a  house  of  worship  but  for  purposes 
of  defense  in  times  of  danger,  and  that,  whatever 
its  form  or  substance,  its  builders  worked  in  constant 
fear  for  their  wives  and  children,  with  muskets 
ever  at  hand  and  sentinels  always  on  duty. 

Another  thing  we  suppose  that  we  know,  only 
because  it  is  true  of  all  other  churches  of  the  time, 
is  that  it  had  no  chimney.  This  lack  of  provision 
for  any  means  of  ameliorating  the  cold  of  our 
winters  was  not  owing,  as  sometimes  believed,  to 
any  foolish  prejudice  or  superstition,  or,  as  some 
seem  to  think,  from  mere  love  of  hardships  and 
discomforts  on  the  part  of  the  Puritans,  but  to  the 
dread  of  conflagration.  Fireless  church  edifices 
were  then  universal,  both  in  Europe  and  America. 
Furnaces  and  even  stoves  were  not,  and  open  fires 
are  dangerous  enough  even  in  houses  that  are  in 
habited  and  watched.  An  open  wood  fire  built 
in  a  house  that  had  been  closed  all  the  week  could 
scarcely  have  accomplished  more  than  to  thaw  the 
frost  from  the  walls  into  visible  streams  of  chilly 
dampness,  without  greatly  raising  the  temperature 


45 

by  the  time  that  even  the  prolonged  services  of 
the  Puritan  Sabbath  were  finished ;  and  the  treach 
erous  beds  of  embers,  even  after  copious  waterings, 
often  proved  to  be  unsafe. 

Those  who  could  afford  such  luxuries  curtained 
their  square  pews  to  keep  currents  of  air  from  too 
great  familiarity,  cushioned  their  otherwise  com 
fortless  seats,  and  covered  the  floors  with  wolf 
skins  and  even  sometimes  with  those  of  the  bear, 
though  the  latter  were  generally  too  precious  for 
floors. 

At  as  early  a  date  as  time  and  means  permitted, 
small  "  Sabbath  Day  Houses  "  were  erected  at  a  cer 
tain  distance  from  the  sacred  edifice.  These  little 
buildings  were  furnished  with  forms  and  stools, 
and  here,  during  the  service-time,  care-takers  were 
left  and  fires  maintained.  From  these  the  coals 
were  taken  for  the  small  foot-stoves  of  which 
many  are  still  found  in  old  garrets,  and  which 
afforded  a  degree  of  comfort  to  the  half-frozen 
church-goers,  who  at  intervals  between  services 
were  wont  to  gather  in  the  little  houses  to  warm 
themselves  and  exchange  neighborly  greetings  and 
news.  Bitter  indeed  must  sometimes  have  been 
their  sufferings  in  cold  winter  weather,  but  hardly 
as  great  as  the  same  state  of  things  would  cause 
to-day,  because  no  one  had  yet  been  rendered  un 
duly  tender  by  furnace-  or  steam-heated  houses. 
There  was  not  then  in  the  colonies  anything  that 
could  be  termed  wealth,  but  had  there  been  ever 


46 

so  much  of  it,  the  treasure  of  an  equably  warm 
temperature  could  not  have  been  purchased. 

Probably  the  house  of  the  pastor  would  have 
been  as  well  built  and  furnished  as  those  of  his 
neighbors,  but  in  the  earliest  days  that  is  not  say 
ing  much  for  either.  Even  in  the  stateliest  dwell 
ings  of  England,  though  there  was  sometimes  a 
good  deal  of  luxury  and  display,  there  was  then 
very  little  of  what  we  should  esteem  to  be  the 
necessary  comforts  of  life.  In  this  country  the  in 
ventories  of  the  seventeenth  century  reveal  the 
poverty  of  the  land  in  unmistakable  ways.  No 
thing  was  too  small  to  escape  enumeration,  so  we 
know  that  the  poorest  farm-laborer  of  to-day  is 
richer  in  comforts  than  the  wealthiest  of  these 
pioneers. 

Few,  if  any,  of  the  early  houses  were  of  more 
than  one  story  in  height.  They  were  built  of  logs, 
and  rarely  contained  more  than  four  rooms.  An 
exception  to  this  was  the  old  stone  house  of  Guil- 
ford,  Connecticut,  built  in  1639,  which  was  in 
tended  to  serve  as  a  fortress  as  well  as  the  minis 
ter's  residence.  Exceptional  also  were  the  houses 
of  the  Rev.  Thomas  Hooker  and  Mr.  Whiting  of 
Hartford  at  the  time  of  their  erection.  But  it  was 
not  long  before  well-constructed,  durable,  and  even 
handsome  dwellings  were  reared  in  every  colony. 

In  our  own  day  the  lives  of  pioneers  are  consid 
ered  of  the  hardest;  yet  now  all  are  within  com 
paratively  easy  reach  of  the  base  of  supplies.  The 


47 

Klondike  is  not  now  farther  from  us  than  old 
England  was  from  New  England  in  those  early 
days.  Probably  but  few  of  the  settlers  belonged 
to  the  wealthy  class  at  home,  yet  many  were  num 
bered  among  the  substantial  landowners, —  the 
upper-class  yeoman  and  the  lower  gentry, —  accus 
tomed  in  their  own  country  to  all  the  comforts 
then  known.  Almost  all  who  came  between 
1628  and  1640  had  fled  from  the  persecution 
under  Archbishop  Laud  which  had  done  so  much 
to  bring  on  the  parliamentary  wars  and  the  reign 
of  Cromwell,  and  such  refugees  had  neither 
thought  nor  hope  of  returning.  All  must  have 
felt  their  privations  keenly,  but  concerning  this 
we  have  little  recorded  complaint  or  testimony  of 
any  sort.  The  difficulties  of  transmission  were  so 
great  that  probably  few  letters  were  written,  and 
of  these  but  a  small  number  have  descended  to  us. 

In  the  diary  of  Juliana  Smith,  1779-81,  there 
exists  a  copy  of  a  fragment  of  a  reminiscent  let 
ter,  written  in  1699  by  the  Rev.  Henry  Smith's 
son,  Samuel  Smith  of  Hadley,  Massachusetts, 
to  his  son,  Ichabod  Smith,  residing  in  Suffield, 
Connecticut,  apparently  in  reply  to  some  inquiries 
which  the  latter  had  made. 

Juliana  writes : 

"  Today  my  Grandmother  Smith  gave  me  to 
read  what  is  left  unburnt  of  a  Letter  which  was 
written  to  my  Great-Grandfather  by  his  Father  & 


48 

has  permitted  me  to  copy  it.  The  Letter  itself 
belongs  to  my  Uncle  Dan  because  he  is  my  Grand 
father's  eldest  son.  A  large  part  of  it  was  burnt 
when  my  Grandfather's  house  in  Suffield  took  fire, 
and  was  barely  saved  from  destruction,  with  the 
loss  of  many  things,  especially  Books  &  Papers. 
The  Bible  in  which  this  Letter  was  kept  was 
found  on  the  next  day  still  smouldering,  with 
more  than  half  of  its  leaves  burnt  away,  including 
a  part  of  the  Family  Record  &  this  Letter: — 

"  4  Hadley,  Massachusetts  Colony, 

Jan.  ye  Firste,  16^ 

" 4  My  Dear  &  Dutiful  Son :  ...  I  was  of  so 
tender  an  Age  at  the  death  of  my  beloved  Father 
that  I  am  possessed  of  but  little  of  the  Information 
for  which  you  seek.  My  Revered  Father  was  an 
ordained  Minister  of  ye  Gospelle,  educate  at  Cam 
bridge  in  England  &  came  to  yis  Land  by  reason 
of  ye  Great  Persecution  by  which  ye  infamous 
Archibishop  Laud  and  ye  Black  Tom  Tyrante,  (as 
Mr.  Russell  was  always  wont  to  call  ye  Earl  of 
Strafforde,)  did  cause  ye  reign  of  his  Majestic 
Charles  ye  First  to  loose  favour  in  ye  sight  of  ye 
people  of  England.  My  Father  &  Mother  came 
over  in  16-^,  firste  to  Watertown  which  is  neare 
Boston,  &  after  a  yeare  or  two  to  Weathersfield  on 
ye  great  River,  where  he  became  ye  firste  settled 
Pastor. 

"'Concerning  of  ye  earlie  days  I  can  remember 


49 

but  little  save  Hardship.  My  Parents  had  broughte 
bothe  Men  Servants  &  Maid  Servants  from  Eng 
land,  but  ye  Maids  tarried  not  but  till  they  got 
Married,  ye  wch  was  shortly,  for  there  was  great 
scarcity  of  Women  in  ye  Colonies.  Ye  men  did 
abide  better.  Onne  of  em  had  married  onne  of 
my  Mother's  Maids  &  they  did  come  with  us  to 
Weathersfield  to  our  grate  Comforte  for  some 
Yeares,  untill  they  had  manny  littel  onnes  of  theire 
Owne.  I  do  well  remember  ye  Face  &  Figure  of 
my  Honoured  Father.  He  was  5  foote,  10  inches 
talle,  &  spare  of  builde,  tho  not  leane.  He  was 
as  Active  as  ye  Red  Skin  Men  &  sinewy.  His 
delighte  was  in  sportes  of  strengthe  &  withe  his 
owne  Hands  he  did  helpe  to  rear  bothe  our  owne 
House  &  ye  Firste  Meetinge  House  of  Weathers- 
field,  wherein  he  preacht  yeares  too  fewe.  He  was 
well  Featured  &  Fresh  favoured  with  faire  Skin 
&  longe  curling  Hair  (as  neare  all  of  us  have 
had)  with  a  merrie  eye  &  swete  smilinge  Mouthe, 
tho  he  coulde  frowne  sternlie  eno'  when  need 
was. 

"'Ye  firste  Meetinge  House  was  solid  mayde 
to  withstande  ye  wicked  onsaults  of  ye  Red  Skins. 
Its  Foundations  was  laide  in  ye  feare  of  ye  Lord, 
but  its  Walls  was  truly  laide  in  ye  feare  of  ye 
Indians,  for  many  &  grate  was  ye  Terrors  of  em. 
I  do  mind  me  y't  alle  ye  able-bodyed  Men  did 
work  thereat,  &  ye  olde  &  feeble  did  watch  in 
turns  to  espte  if  any  Salvages  was  in  hidinge  neare 


5° 

&  every  Man  keept  his  Musket  nighe  to  his 
hande.  I  do  not  myself  remember  any  of  ye 
Attacks  mayde  by  large  bodeys  of  Indians  whilst 
we  did  remayne  in  Weathersfield,  but  did  ofttimes 
hear  of  em.  Several  Families  wch  did  live  back 
a  ways  from  ye  River  was  either  Murderdt  or 
Captivated  in  my  Boyhood  &  we  all  did  live  in 
constant  feare  of  ye  like.  My  Father  ever  de- 
clardt  there  would  not  be  so  much  to  feare  iff  ye 
Red  Skins  was  treated  with  suche  mixture  of  Jus 
tice  &  Authority  as  they  eld  understand,  but  iff  he 
was  living  now  he  must  see  that  wee  can  do 
naught  butjigbt  em  &  that  right  heavily. 

"'  After  ye  Red  Skins  ye  grate  Terror  of  our 
lives  at  Weathersfield  &  for  many  yeares  after  we 
had  moved  to  Hadley  to  live,  was  ye  Wolves. 
Catamounts  was  bad  eno'  &  so  was  ye  Beares,  but 
it  was  ye  Wolves  yt  was  ye  worst.  The  noyes  of 
theyre  howlings  was  eno'  to  curdle  ye  bloode  of 
ye  stoutest  &  I  have  never  seen  ye  Man  yt  did 
not  shiver  at  ye  Sounde  of  a  Packe  of  em.  What 
wth  ye  way  we  hated  em  &  ye  goode  money  yt 
was  offered  for  theyre  Heads  we  do  not  heare  em 
now  so  much,  but  when  I  do  I  feel  again  ye 
younge  hatred  rising  in  my  Bloode,  &  it  is  not  a 
Sin  because  God  mayde  em  to  be  hated.  My 
Mother  &  Sister  did  each  of  em  kill  more  yan  one 
of  ye  gray  Howlers  &  once  my  oldest  Sister  shot 
a  Beare  yt  came  too  neare  ye  House.  He  was  a 
goode  Fatte  onne  &  keept  us  all  in  meate  for  a 


good  while.     I  guess  one  of  her  Daughters  has 
got  ye  skinne. 

"'As  most  of  ye  Weathersfield  Settlers  did 
come  afoot  throu  ye  Wilderness  &  brought  with 
em  such  Things  only  as  they  did  most  neede  at  ye 
firste,  ye  other  Things  was  sent  round  from  Boston 
in  Vessels  to  come  up  ye  River  to  us.  Some  of 
ye  Shippes  did  come  safe  to  Weathersfield,  but 
many  was  lost  in  a  grate  storm.  Amongst  em 
was  onne  wch  held  alle  our  Beste  Things.  A 
good  many  Yeares  later,  long  after  my  Father  had 
died  of  ye  grate  Fever  &  my  Mother  had  married 
Mr.  Russell  &  moved  to  Hadley,  it  was  found  yt 
some  of  our  Things  had  been  saved  &  keept  in 
ye  Fort  wch  is  by  ye  River's  Mouthe,  &  they  was 
brought  to  us.  Most  of  em  was  spoilt  with  Sea 
Water  &  Mould,  especially  ye  Bookes  [Foot-note 
by  Juliana:  "My  Father  hath  one  of  these 
books  —  The  vision  of  Piers  Plowman.  It  is  so 
ruinated  with  damp  and  mould  yt  no  one  can  read 
ye  whole  of  it."]  &  ye  Plate.  Of  this  there  was 
no  grate  store,  only  ye  Tankard,  wch  I  have,  and 
some  Spoones,  divided  amongst  my  Sisters  wch 
was  alle  so  black  it  was  long  before  any  could 
come  to  its  owne  colour  agen,  &  Mr.  Russell  did 
opine  yt  had  it  not  been  so  it  might  not  have 
founde  us  agen,  but  he  was  sometimes  a  littel 
shorte  of  ye  Charity  wch  thinketh  no  Evil,  at  ye 
least  I  was  wont  to  think  so  when  his  Hand  was 
too  heavy  on  my  Shoulders  &  I  remembered  ye 


sweetnesse  &  ye  Charity  of  my  firste  Father,  but 
on  ye  whole  said  he  was  a  Goode  Man  &  did  well 
by  my  Mother  &  her  children,  &  no  doubt  we 
did  often  try  his  wit  &  temper,  but  it  was  in  his 
house  yt '  — 

"Here,"  writes  the  copyist,  "there  is  a  break" 
—  probably  where  the  sheets  of  the  original  had 
been  burned. 

The  silver  tankard  mentioned  in  the  foregoing 
letter  of  Samuel  Smith  of  Hadley  is  in  all  proba 
bility  the  one  now  belonging  to  my  brother,  Gil 
bert  Livingston  Smith  of  Sharon,  Connecticut, 
though  the  earliest  positive  record  which  we  have 
concerning  it  is  in  a  bill  of  sale,  including  various 
things  to  the  amount  of  nearly  £joo,  made  to  the 
Rev.  Cotton  Mather  Smith  by  his  brother,  Simeon 
Smith,  M.D.,  when  the  latter  was  leaving  Sharon 
to  take  up  his  residence  in  Vermont  in  1787.  It 
is  there  described  as  "  One  ancient  Silver  Tan 
kard  marked  with  our  coat  of  arms  &  S.  S.,  bought 
by  me  from  Brother  Dan."  The  tankard  now  has 
on  the  side  opposite  the  handle  a  spout,  which 
was  put  on  about  1820  that  it  might  be  used  as  a 
water-pitcher.  Family  tradition  has  always  held 
that  this  tankard  was  brought  from  England  in 
1636  by  the  Rev.  Henry  Smith,  and  referred  to  in 
the  letter  just  quoted. 

Poor  and  incomplete  are  these  glimpses  of  a 
New  England  pastorate,  but  they  bring  before  us 


53 

some  of  the  privations  suffered,  and  the  courage 
which  so  bravely  met  them  because  it  was 
grounded  on  an  unbounded  faith  in  an  omnipotent 
Father,  and  was  cheered  by  family  affection.  Of 
both  of  these  the  last  will  and  testament  of  the  Rev. 
Henry  Smith  gives  beautiful  testimony.  It  is  not 
couched  in  legal  phraseology,  but  was  apparently 
written  by  himself,  and  hence  is  more  than  usually 
expressive  of  the  testator's  character.  He  had  not 
waited  until  the  shadow  of  death  had  fallen  upon 
him  before  making  his  slender  worldly  prepara 
tions  for  "  departing  hence  to  be  no  more,"  but, 
"  Being  in  health  of  body  and  soundness  of  mind," 
and  "  wishing  to  leave  no  occasion  of  trouble  for 
my  children,"  the  will  was  made  several  months 
before  his  decease.  There  was  not  much  to  be 
disposed  of,  only  a  trifle  over  ^370,  but  that  little 
is  so  graciously  bestowed  that  one  feels  as  fully 
persuaded  of  the  testator's  own  loving  heart  as  he 
was  persuaded  of  God's  "  unchangeable  love  and 
good  will  both  in  life  and  death  .  .  .  according 
to  His  covenant,  viz :  —  I  am  thy  God  and  of  thy 
Seede  after  thee." 

After  this  profession  of  faith,  which  evidently 
comes  from  a  simple  and  earnest  heart,  the  will 
proceeds : 

"  Then  for  my  ovtward  estate,  wch,  because  it 
is  but  littel,  &  I  haue  well  proued  the  difficvlties 
of  this  covntry,  how  hard  a  thing  it  will  bee  for  a 


54 

woman  to  manage  the  affairs  of  so  great  a  family 
as  the  Father  of  Mercyes  hath  blessed  mee  withall, 
&  haue  allso  experience  of  the  prvdence  &  faith- 
fvlness  of  my  deare  Wife,  who  shall,  in  parting 
withe  mee,  part  allso  withe  a  great  part  of  her  liue- 
lihood;  I  do  therefore  beqveath  &  giue  to  her,  the 
fvll  power  &  disposal  of  alle  that  estate  wch  God 
hath  gieuen  mee,  in  howses,  lands,  cattells  &  goods 
whatsoeuer,  within  dores  and  withovt;  only  pro- 
uiding  that  in  case  shee  marry  again,  or  otherwise 
shee  bee  able  comfortably  to  spare  it  from  her  own 
necessary  maintenance,  that  shee  giue  vnto  my 
Sonne  Samvell  that  part  of  my  hovse  lott  that  was 
intended  for  my  Sonne  Peregrine  lyinge  next  to 
the  bvrying  place,  &  the  land  I  haue  beyon  the 
great  Riuer  eastward;  &  allso,  to  him  &  my  sec 
ond  Sonne,  Noah,  fiue  acres  apeece  of  meadow 
with  vplands  proportionable  therevnto,  &  to  the 
reste  of  my  children  vnmarried,  2o  pounds  apeece, 
at  the  age  of  one  &  twenty  yeares,  or  at  the  time 
of  her  death,  wch  shall  come  the  sooner.  &  for 
my  two  Davghters  that  bee  married,  my  desire  is 
that  they  haue  20  Shillings  apeece  and  eueryonne 
of  their  children  fiue  Shillings  apeece,  either  in 
bookes  or  such  other  things  as  my  Wife  shall  best 
please  to  part  withall." 

O*  tne  ^37°  nearly  one  half  was  in  houses  and 
lands,  ^£50  were  in  live  stock,  which  did  not 
include  any  domestic  fowls,  the  latter  being  still 


55 

scarce  in  the  colonies.  Bees,  number  of  hives  not 
stated,  were  valued  at  ^8,  which  seemingly  dis 
proportionately  large  valuation  was  probably  due 
to  the  scarcity  of  the  cultivated  variety.  Probably 
Mr.  Smith  was,  as  all  the  New  England  pastors  of 
his  time  were  obliged  to  be,  a  farmer  as  well  as  a 
preacher,  but  he  could  not  have  been  enthusiasti 
cally  devoted  to  agriculture,  for  his  "husbandry 
tools"  were  only  valued  at  £3  ios.,  while  his 
"armes  &  ammunition"  were  reckoned  at  £<{. 

"Bookes"  are  mentioned,  but  their  value  not 
estimated,  probably  because  at  the  time  of  his 
death,  during  a  prevailing  "  grate  fever,"  proper 
appraisers  may  not  have  been  on  hand.  Min 
isters  were  usually  appointed  to  appraise  books. 
Out  of  thirty-seven  inventories  which  were  re 
corded  during  the  first  ten  years  of  the  Connecticut 
Colony,  in  only  nine,  including  that  of  Mr.  Smith, 
do  we  find  mention  of  books.  The  total  value  of 
these  in  six  of  the  nine  is  estimated  at  £y)  13^. 
Mr.  Hooker's  books  were  estimated  at  ^300,  a 
considerable  item  in  an  estate  amounting  to  only 
about  ^1136.  I  say  "only"  when  viewing  this 
subject  from  present  conditions;  under  those 
of  1648  in  the  colonies,  Mr.  Hooker  was  a 
wealthy  man.  His  friend  and  parishioner,  Mr. 
William  Whiting,  the  plutocrat  of  the  Connecti 
cut  Colony,  left  an  estate  of  ^2854,  including 
debts  due  to  him  which  are  classed  as  "doubtful," 
and  "adventures  wch  are  harserdous"  to  the 


56 

amount  of  ^429.  His  "  books  &  apparell "  united 
are  appraised  at  ^25. 

What  would  seem  to  be  a  disproportionately 
costly  item  in  Mr.  Smith's  house  furnishings  was 
that  of  beds.  Bedsteads  are  not  named,  perhaps 
because  there  were  none,  for  there  were  compara 
tively  few  in  the  country,  save  the  sleeping-bunks 
built  in  with  the  houses,  until  fifteen  or  twenty 
years  later  than  this.  "  Three  feather  beds  with 
all  things  belonging  to  them  "  are  valued  at  ^40, 
which  would  seem  to  show  that  the  "all  things" 
were  of  extra  quality,  or  that  the  other  usual  fur 
nishings  of  the  bedrooms,  and  perhaps  also  that 
of  the  parlor  or  living-room,  as  well  as  the  beds 
themselves,  were  included  in  that  valuation. 

Probably  it  was  for  the  accommodation  of  fire 
that  the  parlor  was  usually  the  guest  bedroom, 
and  we  find  that  the  entire  parlor  furniture  of  the 
wealthy  Mr.  Whiting,  including  "bed-stead,  bed, 
stools,  a  clock  [perhaps  the  only  one  in  the  colony], 
a  safe  [probably  an  iron  or  steel  chest  like  those 
preserved  in  some  European  museums],  a  cradle, 
cob  irons,"  etc.,  is  altogether  valued  at  only 

^17  3J- 

Mr.  Smith's  tables,  chairs,  stools,  cushions,  and 

"  other  things  belonging  "  are  altogether  valued 
at  ^3  15.5-.,  while  "cob  irons,  trammels  &  other 
fire  irons"  were  valued  at  £2  8s.,  and  "brasse, 
iron  potts,  pewter  &  such  like "  were  ap 
praised  at  £1$.  The  two  classes  of  goods  last 


57 

mentioned,  which  at  that  date  must  have  been  im 
ported,  would  naturally  cost  more  than  the  tables 
and  stools,  which,  however  roughly,  could  be  made 
here.  Probably  there  were  not  more  than  two  or 
three  chairs,  and  these  would  have  been  brought 
from  England.  Table  and  other  linen  and  a  "  car- 
pett"  (that  is,  a  table-cover)  were  valued  at  ^14  icxr. 

After  1650  the  variety  and  value  of  the  personal 
property  mentioned  in  the  inventories  rapidly  in 
creased,  while  the  number  of  inventories  does  not 
keep  pace  with  the  number  of  wills  probated  or 
of  estates  administered  upon,  the  wealthier  and 
more  intelligent  members  of  the  community  pre 
ferring  probably  to  keep  such  information  within 
the  privacy  of  the  family  circle,  not  having  pre 
vision  of  how  eagerly  all  such  information  would  be 
welcomed  by  that  posterity  for  which  they  prayed 
and  toiled  and  hoped,  dimly  feeling  all  the  while 
that  this  great  new  land  had  been  set  apart  for  great 
uses  in  the  days  which  were  to  follow  their  own. 

A  glimpse  of  the  relation  which  then  existed  be 
tween  a  Puritan  pastor  and  his  flock  may  be  gained 
from  the  following,  which  is  the  closing  paragraph 
of  Mr.  Smith's  will: 

"And  I  desire  the  Church  whose  seruant  I  now 
am,  to  take  the  care  and  ouersight  of  my  family 
that  they  may  be  brovght  vp  in  the  trve  feare  of 
God,  and  to  see  that  this  my  Will  be  faithfvlly 
prformed.  In  witnesse  whereof  I  haue  svbscribed 
my  name  the  8th  day  of  May,  1648." 


CHAPTER   IV 

A  PIONEER  HOME  IN  CONNECTICUT 


CHAPTER  IV. 

A  PIONEER  HOME  IN 
CONNECTICUT. 


The  Coming  of  Mrs.  Mar 

garet  Lake  and  the 
Family  of  Captain  John 

Gallup. 

Voyage  of  the  Abigail. 

The  First  Homesteads  of 

the  Second  Generation. 

Household  Labor. 
A  Bride's  Furnishings. 


MONG  the  many  slow-sailing  craft 
of  petty  tonnage  which  followed  in 
'  the  wake  of  the  Mayflower,  there  were 
not  a  few  which  brought  men  and 
women  of  high  future  importance  to 
the  infant  colonies  of  New  England ;  but  probably 
few  had  a  more  notable  passenger  list  than  that  of 
the  little  ship  Abigail,  which,  after  a  ten  weeks' 
voyage,  reached  Boston  in  November,  1635.  Of 
its  two  hundred  and  twenty  passengers  some  bore 
names  which  were  already  noted  in  old  England, 
and  the  names  of  others  were  afterward  to  become 
distinguished  in  the  New.  Among  the  latter  was 
the  second  John  Winthrop,  the  founder  of  Ips 
wich,  Massachusetts,  and  afterward  the  honored 
governor  of  Connecticut  Colony  for  many  succes 
sive  terms.  With  him  came  his  second  wife,  then 
newly  wed,  and  her  elder  sister,  Mrs.  Margaret 
Lake,  with  her  two  young  daughters.  It  is  with 
Mrs.  Lake,  rather  than  with  any  of  the  more  dis 
tinguished  members  of  this  notable  ship's  con> 
pany,  that  our  present  chapter  is  concerned. 

Not  until  twelve  years  after  the  arrival  of  the 
61 


62 


Abigail  do  we  again  hear  of  Mrs.  Lake.  This 
time  it  is  as  the  first  white  woman  to  set  foot  in 
what  is  now  New  London  County,  where  —  and  a 
very  unusual  thing  it  was  at  that  time  —  she  is 
named  as  one  of  the  original  grantees,  sharing  in 
all  the  grants  and  divisions  of  land.  Mrs.  Lake 
probably  never  took  up  her  residence  in  New 
London,  appearing  to  have  shared  the  home  of 
her  sister,  Mrs.  Winthrop,  until  the  latter's  hus 
band  became  the  governor  of  Connecticut  Colony, 
after  which  period  Mrs.  Lake  continued  to  reside 
in  Ipswich,  perhaps  in  the  house  which  had  be 
longed  to  the  Winthrops.  It  was  on  the  portion 
of  land  which  had  been  assigned  to  Mrs.  Lake  in 
New  London  County  that  her  daughter  Hannah, 
when,  in  1643,  sne  nac^  become  the  wife  of  the 
second  Captain  John  Gallup,  lived  for  the  first  few 
years  of  her  wedded  life. 

Although  the  conditions  of  life  were  necessarily 
of  the  hardest  all  through  the  early  days  in  all  the 
colonies,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  they  were 
hardest  of  all  in  sterile  New  England,  it  must  not 
be  imagined  that  there  were  no  degrees  in  the 
styles  of  living.  In  spite  of  the  leveling  effect  of 
common  sentiments,  circumstances,  privations,  and 
dangers,  and  of  the  fact  that  men  of  gentle  birth 
and  cultivated  minds  were  forced  by  the  first  law 
of  nature  to  become  measurably  skilled  in  all 
sorts  of  handicraft,  class  distinctions  were  for  sev 
eral  generations  as  rigorously  maintained  in  the 


63 

New  England  as  in  the  Old.  It  was  said  by 
Daniel  Neal,  writing  in  1720:  "In  their  Dress, 
Tables  and  Conversation,  they  [the  colonists] 
affect  to  be  as  English  as  possible.  .  .  .  The  only 
difference  between  an  Old  and  a  New  English 
Man  is  in  his  Religion."  Hence  it  is  plain  that, 
at  least  after  the  first  two  or  three  years  in  any 
given  settlement,  to  describe  the  home  of  a  family 
belonging  to  one  social  class  is  by  no  means  to 
describe  that  of  a  family  belonging  to  another 
_class  at  the  same,  much  less  at  another,  period. 

The  wills  of  the  respective  ancestors  of  John 
and  of  Hannah  Lake  Gallup  prove  them  to  have 
been  men  of  considerable  substance  and  local  im 
portance  in  old  England.  In  the  New  World 
their  family  alliances  were  equally  respectable,  so 
it  may  be  supposed  that  their  dwelling  and  home 
belongings  were  fairly  representative  of  those  of 
the  best  of  the  pioneer  families  of  their  time. 

But  before  the  nest-building  must  have  come 
the  mating,  with  all  its  preliminaries,  as  sweet 
here  in  the  wilderness  as  if  the  actors  in  the  little 
love-drama  had  been  walking  beneath  the  haw 
thorn  hedges  on  one  of  their  ancestral  manors 
across  the  sea.  Between  the  dust-dry  lines  of  the 
dim  old  records  we  imagine  that  we  catch  a 
glimpse  of  what  may  have  been  a  very  charming 
and  beautiful  romance;  for  John  Gallup  and 
Hannah  Lake,  as  boy  and  girl,  probably  about 
fourteen  and  twelve  years  of  age,  were  fellow-pas- 


64 

sengers  on  the  ship  Abigail  during  the  long  cross 
ing  of  the  stormy  Atlantic.  When,  as  in  this 
case,  more  than  two  hundred  passengers  were 
packed  closely  together  for  ten  or  more  tedious 
and  sometimes  fearful  weeks,  there  is  no  doubt 
that  the  foundations  were  laid  for  many  long- 
enduring  friendships,  and  sometimes,  alas !  for 
equally  durable  dislikes;  and  if  these,  why  may 
not  love  also  have  been  born  in  these  confined 
and  tempestuous  quarters  ?  At  least,  it  js  a  pleas 
ant  thought,  with  some  warrant  of  tradition  and 
probability,  that  the  manly  boy,  tall,  handsome, 
and  bold  as  he  must  have  been,  if  in  this  case  the 
boy  was  the  father  of  the  man,  and  the  bright- 
faced  girl  who  became  a  brave,  high-spirited,  and 
loving  matron,  may  have  begun  their  mutual  life 
long  trust  and  love  upon  this  wave-tossed  little 
vessel,  smaller  than  many  a  fishing-schooner  of 
to-day.  There  must  certainly  have  been  many 
opportunities  to  make  their  respective  faults  and 
virtues  known  to  each  other. 

The  conditions  of  such  a  voyage  are  vividly 
painted  in  the  elder  Governor  Winthrop's  journal 
of  his  own  voyage  five  years  preceding  that  of  the 
Abigail.  He  makes  no  complaints,  but  it  is  easy 
to  see  that  the  noble  spirit  of  the  adventurer  for 
conscience'  sake  had  much  to  triumph  over.  On 
the  four  vessels  of  which  the  bark  which  bore  him 
was  one,  he  records  that  there  were  three  deaths 
and  three  births  during  the  voyage.  Surely  those 


65 

were  brave  women  who  accompanied  their  hus 
bands,  venturing  so  much  at  such  a  time !  One 
advantage  that  the  elder  Winthrop's  company  had, 
and  which  probably  they  of  the  younger  did  not 
have,  has  a  picnicky  sound  that  is  droll  enough  to 
modern  ears. 

When  "off  the  banks  of  New  Foundland  the 
Arabella  stopped  to  fish,"  and  "all  the  passengers 
who  were  so  minded "  seem  to  have  enjoyed  the 
sport  of  replenishing  their  scanty  larder.  A  little 
later  we  find  that  they  were  picking  strawberries 
on  Cape  Ann. 

The  Abigail's  weary  voyage  was  not  ended  until 
in  November,  much  too  late  for  any  such  diver 
sions.  It  is  at  least  to  be  hoped  that  her  passen 
gers  did  not,  like  those  of  a  ship  which  immediately 
followed  the  Arabella,  "arrive  nearly  starved," 
but  it  is  certain  that  they  had  on  board  a  most 
unwelcome  companion  in  the  smallpox.  At  that 
time  even  inoculation  had  not  become  known,  and 
we  can  now  but  faintly  imagine  the  well-justified 
terrors  of  those  exposed  to  the  disease. 

Though  the  young  couple  were  not  married 
until  eight  years  after  their  arrival  in  this  country, 
it  is  probable  that  their  earliest  dwelling  was  built 
of  logs,  as  were  most  of  the  houses  of  this  date  and 
vicinity.  If  so,  it  was  soon  superseded  by  the 
permanent  homestead,  which  was  not  taken  down 
until  the  latter  part  of  the  eighteenth  century.  I 
have  talked  about  this  house  with  a  man  who  had 


66 


heard  it  described  by  his  mother,  the  daughter  of  a 
farm-laborer  who  had  lived  in  it  until  her  marriage 
at  the  age  of  eighteen  years.  Soon  after  that  time 
it  ceased  to  be  used  as  a  dwelling,  and  before  this 
it  had  long  been  occupied  only  as  a  tenement- 
house  for  farm-laborers,  a  finer  residence  having 
been  erected  for  their  own  homestead  by  the  de 
scendants  of  the  builders  of  the  first.  The  second 
permanent  home  of  the  Gallups  was  fine  for  its 
days  and  must  have  been  intended  to  fill,  in  a 
degree,  the  place  of  one  of  the  old  manor-houses, 
of  which  the  builders  of  the  first  had  probably 
transmitted  vivid  memory-pictures ;  but  the  dwell 
ing  which  immediately  succeeded  the  log  house 
was  erected  with  a  view  to  meeting  the  needs  of 
the  new  country. 

That  so  few  of  the  houses  of  the  early  settlers 
were  built  of  the  excellent  stone  which  is  over 
abundant  in  New  England  was  not  due  to  the 
groundless  prejudice  against  that  material  which 
arose  among  their  great-grandchildren,  but  to  the 
fact  that  haste  —  such  haste  as  was  possible  in 
those  slow  days  —  was  of  the  utmost  consequence. 
No  man  wished  to  spend  the  best  years  of  his  life 
in  a  cabin  of  logs  and  clay  while  waiting  for  a 
stone  house  to  grow,  as  ordinarily  it  must  under 
the  tedious  methods  of  the  period,  layer  by  layer, 
the  lower  tiers  almost  having  time  to  gather  moss 
before  the  roof-beams  could  be  raised. 

The  larger  part  of  the  best  of  the  early  houses 


of  New  England  were  probably  much  like  this 
first  permanent  homestead  of  the  Gallups.  Both 
the  external  walls  and  those  of  the  partitions  were 
of  heavy  timbers,  roughly  squared  by  the  ax, 
chinked  with  moss,  and  lined  with  hewn  planks 
two  inches  in  thickness.  In  later  days  coats  of 
plaster  were  put  on  over  the  planks,  but  during 
the  first  years  the  walls  were  made  warm  as  well  as 
picturesque  by  hangings  of  bear,  deer,  otter,  wild 
cat,  and  fox  skins,  whenever  these  could  be  spared 
from  more  pressing  uses.  The  exterior  walls  were 
about  two  feet  in  thickness,  which  tells  of  the  size 
of  the  forest  trees  which  had  been  cut  down  to 
make  them.  The  high-placed  and  deep-seated 
windows  were  scant  in  number,  heavily  barred  and 
narrow.  (The  Pequots  and  Narragansetts  were 
near,  numerous,  and  crafty.)  It  is  doubtful  if  the 
first  of  the  windows  were  glazed.  Even  in  old 
England  it  was  only  the  wealthy  who  at  this  time 
could  afford  the  luxury  of  glass.  Oiled  paper  was 
the  usual  substitute.  To  exclude  the  cold  were 
heavy  and  close  wooden  shutters  both  outside  and 
inside.  During  the  coldest  weather  it  must  have 
been  necessary  to  depend  for  light,  even  in  the 
daytime,  upon  open  fires,  pine-knots,  and  candles, 
for  at  least  the  first  decade  or  two  in  each  new 
settlement. 

In  the  center  of  the  house  rose  the  great  stone 
chimney,  with  wide-throated  fireplaces  opening 
into  three  large  rooms  on  the  first  story,  and  into 


68 


four  upon  the  second  story.  The  unplastered 
and  paintless  ceilings  were  low,  but  higher  than 
was  usual,  for  John  Gallup  is  said  to  have  stood 
six  feet  four  inches  in  his  gray  knit  hose,  and  had 
to  bow  his  stately  head  to  enter  any  doorway  save 
his  own.  The  second  story  on  the  two  longer 
sides  projected  considerably  beyond  the  lower.  In 
view  of  the  constant  danger  from  Indians,  it  is 
probable  that  this  house  was  intended  to  be  used 
as  a  fortress  in  case  of  necessity,  and  this  projection 
may  have  been  made  for  the  sake  of  affording  a 
coign  of  vantage  to  its  inmates  if  attacked  by 
savages,  although,  as  this  method  of  construction 
was  a  common  one  in  nearly  all  parts  of  Europe 
at  the  time,  this  is  not  a  necessary  supposition. 
The  third  story  was  but  a  big  garret  with  windows 
in  each  end.  Beneath  all  were  deep  cellars  for  the 
storage  of  winter  supplies,  and  for  the  manufacture 
and  ripening  of  home-brewed  beer,  made  after 
recipes  brought  from  the  mother-countryo  At 
first  cider  had  no  place  in  those  cellars,  but  after 
the  orchards  had  grown,  there  was  found  room  for 
the  barrels  of  hard  cider  which  were  made  from 
them,  and  which  finally  quite  displaced  the  hea 
vier  and  perhaps  more  wholesome,  certainly  less 
stimulating,  beer.  In  the  cellars  were  also 
kept,  even  from  the  first,  the  casks  of  metheg- 
lin,  made  from  the  plentiful  honey  of  the  wild  bee, 
which  in  the  autumn  filled  the  place  with  the 
sound  of  its  working  like  the  swarming  of  armies 


69 

of  bees  —  a  sound  which  was  said  to  be  reproduced 
in  the  befuddled  heads  of  those  who  were  not 
extremely  moderate  in  their  draughts  of  this  too 
potent  liquor. 

In  the  broad  and  high-peaked  garret  were  set 
the  heavy  looms  at  which,  during  all  the  long 
summer  days,  either  men  or  women,  as  the  case 
might  be,  were  diligently  weaving  the  coarse  stuff 
which  must  serve  young  and  old,  master  and  man, 
mistress  and  maid,  for  all  the  rougher  occasions  of 
pioneer  life. 

Very  different  are  the  social  standards  of  differ 
ing  times.  In  early  New  England,  and  in  all  the 
colonies,  for  that  matter,  it  was  only  a  specially 
wealthy  family  which  could  afford  to  own  a  loom, 
at  least  until  they  could  be  made  here.  Weaving 
was  heavy  work,  and  was  mostly  done  by  weavers 
who  went  from  house  to  house,  or  by  the  poorer 
neighbors,  who  were  paid  in  cloth  or  in  other  needed 
supplies.  It  seems  certain  that,  during  the  first 
two  or  three  decades  at  least,  much  of  the  spin 
ning  must  have  been  done  with  the  distaff,  for 
comparatively  few  wheels  are  mentioned  in  the 
inventories  of  those  years.  Whether  with  distaff 
or  wheel,  spinning  was  winter's  lighter  task,  and 
performed  by  both  mistress  and  maids;  but,  as 
with  the  weaving,  it  was  only  the  well-to-do  who 
had  the  materials.  It  was  many  years  before  suffi 
cient  wool  or  flax  could  be  grown  in  this  country 
to  make  them  plentiful. 


7° 

Long  before  cloth-weaving  factories  were  estab 
lished  here,  yet  not  until  the  early  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  a  few  fulling-mills  were  set 
up ;  at  these  the  woolen  cloths  were  dyed,  fulled, 
sheared,  and  pressed.  A  web  of  cloth  which  had 
passed  through  the  fuller's  processes  was  an  object 
of  envy  to  those  —  and  they  were  in  the  majority 
—  who  could  not  afford  to  pay  for  his  services. 

The  making  of  the  plainest  linens  was  probably 
all  done  at  home,  either  with  or  without  the  aid  of 
the  itinerant  weaver,  whose  services  were  some 
times  bespoken  months  in  advance,  so  greatly  was 
he  in  demand.  Even  after  his  labors  were  done 
the  fabric  was  not  ready  for  use.  In  my  dear 
mother's  girlhood  flax-spinning  was  still  consid 
ered  as  an  essential  accomplishment  for  young 
ladies,  at  least  among  the  descendants  of  the 
Huguenots.  I  have  heard  her  say  that  to  bring 
the  fine  linen  for  shirts  to  the  required  degree  of 
snowiness  no  less  than  thirty  and  sometimes  even 
forty  bleachings  were  necessary.  The  first  few 
bleachings  were  of  the  thread.  The  colonists  were 
never  sparing  of  their  labor,  yet  it  is  probable  that 
they  were  not  so  dainty  as  to  the  shade  of  white 
ness  in  the  overfilled  days  of  the  seventeenth  cen 
tury.  With  their  best  diligence,  the  time  required 
from  the  sowing  of  the  flax  to  the  end  of  the  last 
bleaching  could  never  be  less  than  sixteen  months. 

Farm-laborers  had  come  over  in  numbers,  and 
there  was  a  fair  proportion  of  mechanics,  but  of 


71 

maid-servants  there  was  oftentimes  a  great  lack. 
Though  many  a  family,  among  the  richer  colo 
nists,  had  brought  several,  the  maid-servants  were 
always  fewer  in  number  than  the  men-servants, 
and  when  they  married,  as  most  of  them  did  very 
soon,  there  wa^np  way  of  supplying  their  places. 
At  the  date  when  this  old  house  was  new  there 
were  few  negroes  in  New  England,  and  the  half- 
tamed  squaws  who  were  sometimes  employed 
made  very  poor  substitutes  for  trained  house- 
workers.  As  the  Winthrops  were  sometimes  most 
unhappily  forced  to  make  use  of  this  very  unsat 
isfactory  form  of  household  service,  it  is  probable 
that  Mrs.  Lake  and  her  daughters  were  also  com 
pelled  to  accept  of  it  in  default  of  better. 

Scanty  enough,  according  to  our  standard,  were 
then  the  plenishings  of  the  wealthy  houses  of  old 
England,  and  really  pathetic  was  the  scarcity  here 
of  what  were  even  then  esteemed  to  be  essential 
comforts  in  the  older  land. 

Not  until  well  into  the  second  half  of  the  sev 
enteenth  century  was  furniture  of  any  but  the 
roughest  sorts  made  in  New  England,  and  it  is 
obviously  impossible  that  much  should  have  been 
imported  in  the  tiny  vessels  then  dignified  by  the 
name  of  ships.  Their  space  was  too  important  to 
be  filled  with  furniture,  their  petty  holds  being 
always  crowded  with  the  literally  indispensable 
articles,  such  as  provisions,  arms,  ammunition, 
tools,  seeds,  and  clothes,  while  their  scanty  deck- 


space  was  made  still  scantier  by  the  presence  of 
the  live  stock  of  which  the  colonists  were  in  such 
pressing  need. 

In  1645  Mrs.  Lake  sent  to  a  correspondent  in 
England  a  list  of  things  which  she  desired  for  the 
furnishing  of  the  new  house  of  her  daughter,  Mrs. 
Gallup.  She  asked  for  : 

"  A  peare  of  brasse  Andirons, 

A  brasse  Kittell, 

2  grate  Chestes  well  made, 

2  armed  Cheares  with  fine  rushe  bottums, 

A  carven   Caisse  for  Bottels  wch  my  Cuzzen 

Cooke  has  of  mine, 
A  Warmeing  Pann, 
A  big  iron  Pott, 
6  Pewter  Plates, 

2  Pewter  Platters, 

3  Pewter  Porringeres, 

A  small  stew  Pann  of  Copper, 

A  peare  of  Brasse  and  a  peare  of  Silver  Candle 
sticks  (of  goode  Plate.) 

A  Drippe  Panne, 

A  Bedsteede  of  carven  Oake,  (ye  one  in  wch  I 
sleept  in  my  Father's  house,  wth  ye  Val- 
lances  and  Curtayns  and  Tapestry  Cover 
lid  belongynge,  &  ye  wch  my  Sister  Bread- 
cale  [?]  hath  in  charge  for  Mee.) 

3  Duzzen  Nappekins  of  fine  linen  damasque  & 
2  Tabel  cloathes  of  ye  same.  Alsoe  8 


73 

fine  Holland   Pillowe    Beeres  &  4  ditto 

Sheetes, 
A  skellet, 

A  pestel  &  Mortar, 
A  few  Needels  of  differnt  sizes, 
A  Carpet  [that  is,  a  table-cover ;  the  name  was 

then  universally  thus  applied],  of  goodley 

stuffe  and  colour,  aboute  2  Ell  longe. 
6  Tabel  Knifes  of  ye  beste  Steal  wth  such  han- 

dels  as  may  bee. 
Alsoe,  3  large  &  3  smal  Silvern  Spoones,  &  6 

of  home." 

And  this  is  all.  Yet  for  the  time  and  place  it 
must  have  been  considered  a  fine  outfit,  perhaps 
too  much  so  for  the  wife  of  the  frontier  farmer, 
skipper,  and  fighter.  At  the  same  period  in  old 
England,  in  the  wills  of  wealthy  titled  families, 
bedding,  utensils  of  copper,  and  dishes  of  pewter 
were  constantly  named  as  articles  of  considerable 
value.  The  elder  Governor  Winthrop  was  known 
as  one  of  the  wealthiest  of  the  early  colonists,  yet 
the  inventory  of  his  possessions,  made  in  1649, 
does  not  present  a  proportionately  finer  showing. 
Even  a  century  later  than  this  date  a  complete 
outfit  of  pewter  plates,  dishes,  and  spoons  made  a 
lordly  wedding  present,  given  by  a  grandson  of 
Major-General  Humphrey  Atherton  to  his  daugh 
ter  —  a  gift  which,  according  to  traditions,  excited 
some  heartburnings  among  relatives  who  had  not 


74 

been  so  favored.  In  the  absence  of  pewter, 
wooden  bowls,  trenchers,  and  noggins  were  consid 
ered  rather  fine,  while  the  carefully  dried  gourds 
and  the  deep,  saucer-like  shells  of  the  immense 
quahogs,  which  were  then  so  abundant,  but  have 
now  left  only  degenerate  descendants  along  the 
New  England  coasts,  served  an  ever-useful  pur 
pose  when  the  supply  of  better  things  was  short. 
It  is  said  that  small  clam-shells,  set  in  split  sticks 
for  handles,  were  used  as  teaspoons  until  the  early 
part  of  this  century.  The  large  a^nd  thin  shells  of  a 
kind  of  scallop,  which  is  still  plentiful  along  the 
shores  of  Maine  and  Massachusetts,  are  sometimes 
used  even  now  as  skimmers  —  a  curious  survival 
of  an  old  custom  so  long  after  the  need  for  it  has 
passed  by  ! 

Many  years  after  the  old  Gallup  house  had  been 
torn  down,  the  dining-table  which  had  served  the 
family  for  at  least  one  generation  was  preserved  in 
an  out-house,  where  my  informant  had  seen  it  in 
his  youth.  It  was  simply  what  once  had  been 
the  cover  of  a  large  packing-box,  of  smooth  oak 
boards,  supported  by  carefully  squared  legs.  The 
box  might  have  been  used  to  bring  the  bedding 
and  other  things  from  Europe,  for  on  the  under 
side  of  the  table's  top  still  remained  the  inscription  : 
"  For  Mrs.  Margarette  Lake,  Ippsitch." 

Chairs,  when  found  at  all  in  the  houses  of  the 
earliest  colonists,  were  reserved  for  the  heads  of 
families  and  their  most  honored  guests,  or  for  the 


75 

infirm.  When  one  remembers  what  uncomforta 
ble  things  the  most  of  those  chairs  were,  one  must 
profoundly  pity  the  infirm !  One  may  be  per 
mitted  to  hope  that  the  comfortable  "  barrel  chair," 
still  sometimes  found  in  the  country  houses,  was 
the  happy  invention  of  this  time,  by  some  bene 
factor  of  the  ill  and  aged.  Coopers  were  plentier 
than  cabinet-makers  in  those  days,  and  the  barrel 
chair  has  an  extremely  primitive  look.  Even  in 
England,  until  after  the  Restoration,  backless 
benches  and  stools  formed  the  usual  seats,  and  we 
must  suppose  that  they  did  so  for  many  years 
later  than  that. 

Closets  or  pantries  were  not  often  built  in  the 
houses  which  first  succeeded  the  log  cabins  of  the 
settlers,  chests  which  might  also  be  utilized  as 
seats,  and  a  small  room  with  shelves  not  always 
overnicely  smoothed,  answering  for  the  safe-keep 
ing  of  most  articles  not  in  daily  use.  A  cupboard 
was  a  possession  indicating  a  good  degree  of  pros 
perity,  while  a  "  court  cup-board,"  or  a  sideboard, 
was  a  mark  of  positive  affluence,  even  at  a  much 
later  date  than  this. 

Scanty  as  was  the  wedding  house-plenishing  of 
Hannah  Gallup,  she  was  reasonably  well  provided 
with  fine  clothes.  Indeed,  all  of  the  better  class 
among  the  colonists  seem  to  have  had  dispropor 
tionately  liberal  supplies  of  "  mantels  "  and  "  petty- 
cotes  "  of  velvet  or  brocade,  with  other  "  garments 
to  consort  therewith " ;  but  this  was  not  due  so 


76 

much  to  vanity  as  to  thrift,  the  best  being  liter 
ally  the  cheapest  in  the  days  when  the  finer 
fabrics  were  so  honestly  made  as  to  wear  for 
decades,  and  the  cost  of  carriage  was  the  same 
for  a  coat  of  frieze  as  for  one  of  velvet. 

Of  silverware  there  was  some,  but  not  frequent, 
mention  in  wills  and  inventories,  and  to  jewelry 
still  less  reference  is  made,  unless  mourning-rings 
may  be  thus  classed.  Mrs.  Lake  bequeathed  to 
one  of  her  daughters  an  "  enamailed  "  and  to  the 
other  a  "  gould  "  ring.  An  item  of  curious  interest 
in  this  will  is  the  following : 

"  To  my  Daughter,  Martha  Harris,  I  give  my 
tapestry  coverlid  and  all  my  other  apparell,  which 
are  not  disposed  of  to  others  pticulerly,  and  I  .give 
unto  her  my  mantel,  and  after  her  decease  to  all 
her  children  as  their  need  is"  (The  italics  are 
mine.) 

Tradition  runs  that  this  "  mantel "  was  of  Russian 
sable,  even  then  as  costly  as  it  was  rare,  and  that  it 
had  been  brought  from  the  far  East,  perhaps  China. 
Such  a  bequest  brings  many  things  to  mind :  long, 
tedious  sledgings,  when  stalwart  men  took  the 
place  of  horses  or  oxen  and  drew  their  wives  or 
sisters  through  the  windings  of  wintry  forests, 
where  the  only  track  was  an  Indian  trail,  and 
where  every  step  was  shadowed  by  the  ever-pres 
ent  dread  of  the  approach  of  the  stealthy  foe.  Or 
we  see  visions  of  night  campings,  made  fearful  by 


77 

the  bowlings  of  the  wolves;  and,  day  or  night, 
always  the  same  benumbing  cold.  Often  must 
the  grandmother's  fur  "  mantel "  (worn,  we  may 
be  sure,  until  the  last  hair  was  gone)  have  proved 
a  veritable  life-preserver  in  those  bitter  years. 

In  addition  to  the  above-mentioned  "  mantel," 
Mrs.  Lake  seems  to  have  left  a  wardrobe  of  con 
siderable  extent  and  richness,  besides  a  goodly  list 
of  linens  and  other  household  treasures,  with  sev 
eral  carved  chests  to  contain  them ;  but  no  books 
are  mentioned,  save  a  "  grate  Byble  "  and  "  another 
Bible." 

Of  such  homely  comforts  as  could  be  made 
from  the  materials  at  hand  the  industrious  and 
ingenious  colonist  might  possess  a  rude  abun 
dance.  Le  Grand  Monarque  of  the  most  luxurious 
country  then  existing  might  have  a  fine  silken 
instead  of  a  coarse  linen  slip  for  his  bed,  but  it 
would  be  filled  with  feathers  no  better  than  those 
plucked  from  the  wild  water-fowl  of  the  New 
England  coast;  while  heavily  lined  curtains  of 
coarse  homespun  wool  or  linen  shut  out  the  bitter 
winds  as  effectually  as  the  bravest  damask  from 
the  looms  of  Flanders.  The  absence  of  many 
things  which  we  now  deem  to  be  essential  was 
not  felt  as  a  privation,  because  the  things  were 
unknown,  not  only  in  this  wilderness,  but  in  the 
old  country. 

Some  one  writing  of  the  Lady  Arbella  John 
son  has  said  that  "she  came  from  a  paradise  of 


78 

plenty  and  pleasure  into  a  wilderness  of  wants." 
This  expression  is  especially  correct  as  regards  its 
last  clause.  "  A  wilderness  of  wants "  this  cer 
tainly  must  have  seemed,  not  only  to  the  sister  of 
the  Earl  of  Lincoln,  but  also  to  the  hardiest  of  the 
colonists ;  and  these  wants  were  actual,  not  imagi 
nary,  as  evidenced  by  the  frightful  death-rates  of 
the  early  years.  But  even  the  tapestried  halls  the 
delicate  Lady  Arbella  had  left  would  seem  com 
fortless  enough  to  the  daughter  of  any  small  farmer 
of  modern  New  England,  however  much  she 
might  admire  its  splendor,  could  she  now  sud 
denly  find  herself  placed  in  the  Lady  Arbella's  fine 
abode  of  "  pleasure  and  plenty  "  as  the  latter  had 
left  it  in  1630. 

Floor-coverings  were  then  a  rarity  even  in 
palaces,  and  the  sand  and  rushes  which  polished 
the  boards  or  silenced  the  tread  were  as  plentiful 
here  as  elsewhere.  Porcelain  was  a  luxury  in  any 
land ;  even  delft  was  uncommon ;  and  pewter  was 
considered  too  fine  for  the  daily  use  of  any  save 
the  rich.  Wooden  dishes  served  on  ordinary 
occasions  in  old  England  as  in  the  New,  save 
among  the  wealthiest.  The  sense  of  real  priva 
tion  was  felt  in  things  much  closer  to  the  needs  of 
the  primitive  man. 

Great,  very  great,  must  have  been  the  suffering 
from  the  cold  and  from  the  lack  of  suitable  food. 
If  the  colonists  sometimes  took  undue  quantities 
of  beer  and  the  stronger  liquors,  not  only  the  tra- 


79 

ditions  of  the  older  land  but  the  hard  conditions 
of  the  new  must  be  remembered  in  extenuation. 
They  needed  something  besides  cold  water.  Hot 
water  had  not  been  dreamed  of  as  a  beverage,  and 
the  milder  stimulants  of  our  day  had  not  been 
introduced.  The  earliest  mention  of  chocolate  in 
Connecticut  is  said  to  have  been  in  1679.  Five 
years  later  coffee  is  first  named,  and  tea  not  until  1695. 
For  many  years  raised  bread  was  hardly  known, 
and  this  for  several  very  good  reasons.  It  was  a 
difficult  matter  to  preserve  the  leaven  from  one 
baking  until  the  next.  Either  it  would  sour  from 
too  great  heat,  or  it  would  lose  its  vitality  from 
the  severe  cold  weather.  To  bake  bread  in  an 
iron  pot  over  the  fire  or  under  the  same  utensil 
inverted  before  the  blaze,  was  an  undertaking  very 
doubtful  in  its  results ;  yet  there  was  no  other  way, 
for  the  brick  or  stone  ovens  of  a  later  date  did  not 
exist  during  the  first  decade,  and,  except  in  a  few 
instances,  probably  not  for  a  score  of  years  longer. 
Until  a  sufficiency  of  bread-stuffs  could  be  raised 
here,  which  was  not  for  several  years,  both  wheat 
flour  and  oatmeal  were  imported  in  considerable 
quantities ;  but  the  first  was  costly  even  in  Eng 
land,  and  as  both  often  arrived  here  in  an  exceed 
ingly  damaged  condition,  the  roughly  pounded  or 
ground  meal  of  Indian  corn  was  for  months  at  a 
time  the  staff  of  life  — a  staff  which,  for  persons 
of  weak  powers  of  digestion,  has  often  proved  an 
insufficient  support. 


8o 


For  grinding  this  the  only  mills  were  of  the  sim 
ple  Indian  construction  —  a  large  stone  hollowed 
by  natural  or  by  artificial  means,  and  another  stone 
into  which  a  wooden  handle  had  been  fitted.  The 
latter  was  sometimes  tied  to  a  young  sapling  grow 
ing  near,  which,  by  its  rebound,  saved  the  grinder 
the  labor  of  lifting  the  pestle.  In  my  childhood 
near  the  ruins  of  an  ancient  house  stood  a  very 
large  birch-tree ;  beneath  it  was  a  hollow  stone, 
and  still  lingering  amid  the  upper  branches,  which 
had  grown  in  such  a  way  as  to  -hold  and  support 
it,  could  be  seen  one  of  these  ancient  pestles. 

After  the  first  few  seasons  summer  vegetables 
were  as  fine  and  as  plentiful  as  in  old  England, 
but  it  was  impossible  to  preserve  for  winter  use 
any  that  could  not  survive  deep  burial  in  trenches 
out  of  doors  or  in  the  cellars,  overlaid  with  piles 
of  earth  mixed  with  dead  leaves,  so  bitter  was 
the  winter  frost  and  so  inadequate  the  means  of 
excluding  it. 

Poultry  was  more  easily  brought  than  larger 
live  stock,  and  multiplied  more  rapidly,  but  it  was 
a  good  many  years  after  the  landing  at  Plymouth 
before  cows  and  sheep  became  plenty.  Even  as 
late  as  1672,  when  Mrs.  Lake  made  her  will,  a 
"cow  and  heifer"  were  evidently  esteemed  to  be 
bequests  of  more  than  ordinary  value ;  indeed,  the 
same  was  then  true  in  old  England,  where  a  man 
whose  estate  went  by  entail  to  his  eldest  son,  and 
who  bequeathed  ,£1000  each  to  four  younger  sons, 


8i 


seems  to  have  thought  each  of  his  daughters  well 
portioned  with  ^200,  a  cow,  a  heifer,  ten  sheep, 
and  a  feather-bed.  Trumbull,  in  his  history  of 
Connecticut,  gives  the  value  of  a  good  milch  cow, 
at  about  1640,  as  ^30.  At  the  same  date  car 
penters  and  other  mechanics  were  receiving  from 
fourteen  to  eighteen  pence  per  day.  The  work  of 
a  "  paire  of  Oxen  with  tacklin "  was  held  to  be 
worth  two  shillings  and  fivepence  for  "  six  howers  " 
in  winter  and  "  eight  howers  "  the  rest  of  the  year, 
these  hours  making  the  full  day's  work  for  cattle, 
except  in  heavy  upland  plowing,  when  "six 
howers  "  was  considered  enough.  A  man's  work 
ing  hours  were  reckoned  from  sun  to  sun  in  sum 
mer,  and  from  six  to  six  o'clock  in  winter;  but 
cattle  were  much  more  precious  than  men.  The 
latter  usually  managed  to  survive  the  long  and 
arduous  sea  voyage,  but  of  the  cattle  which  formed 
the  deck-load  of  nearly  all  incoming  ships  in 
summer,  not  more  than  twenty-five  per  cent,  were 
expected  to  survive,  even  under  exceptionally  fa 
vorable  conditions. 

Some  of  the  first  of  the  colonists  sent  by  nearly 
every  returning  ship  for  seeds  and  young  fruit- 
trees,  but  comparatively  few  of  the  latter  survived 
the  long  voyage,  and  of  course  those  that  did  so 
required  some  years  to  come  to  maturity.  This 
led  to  the  making  large  use  of  the  delicious  wild 
berries  in  their  seasons,  but  the  best  of  these,  as 
the  raspberries  and  the  strawberries, —  which  have 


82 


sadly  degenerated  in  size  since  Winthrop  tanta 
lized  his  home  correspondents  by  describing  indi 
vidual  berries  as  "two  inches  in  length,"- -do  not 
take  kindly  to  being  dried,  refusing  to  retain  their 
flavor  under  such  treatment,  and  no  other  method 
of  preservation  was  then  practicable. 

Of  such  fruits  as  did  endure  the  process  great 
quantities  were  gathered  and  dried,  a  labor  which 
added  not  a  little  to  the  toils  of  the  women  of  the 
families  during  the  summer.  Under  these  condi 
tions,  it  is  not  wonderful  that  the  useful,  long-suffer 
ing  pumpkin  came  into  such  universal  favor. 
Preserving  fruits  by  the  only  effectual  method 
then  known,  except  drying, —  the  boiling  with  the 
solid  pound  of  fruit  for  pound  of  sugar, — was  un 
wholesome,  very  costly,  and  but  little  attempted. 
Game  and  fish  were  abundant  and  delicious.  Salt 
meats  were  a  staple  import,  and  swine  soon  became 
plenty ;  but  horned  cattle,  sheep,  and  even  domestic 
fowls  were  for  a  long  time  too  valuable  to  be  eaten. 

For  years  there  seems  to  have  been  little  attempt 
at  butter-making;  most  of  that  which  was  used 
here  was  imported  from  England,  and  often  did 
not  keep  well,  in  spite  of  being  frequently  made 
unpalatable  by  the  quantity  of  salt  used  to  pre 
serve  it.  On  the  occasion  of  the  wedding  of  her 
daughter  Hannah,  Mrs.  Lake  writes  that  she  had 
"made  some  very  goode  buttere  although  it 
seemed  almost  Wicket  to  soe  yuse  ye  milk  yt  is 
so  sore  needet  for  ye  sick  £  ye  littell  ownes." 


83 

Sheep  were  spared  for  their  wool  and  poultry 
for  their  eggs ;  when  the  chickens  were  sacrificed 
their  feathers  were  carefully  preserved,  for  in 
those  days  of  scarcity  a  bed  of  hen  feathers  would 
not  be  despised,  though  those  of  the  wild  geese 
and  ducks  would  certainly  be  more  highly 
prized. 

In  later  times  there  was  no  lack  of  material  to 
keep  the  hands  of  matrons  and  maids  busily  spin 
ning,  but  at  first  there  was  neither  flax  nor  wool  to 
spin.  Woolen  yarns  were  among  the  articles  sent 
for  to  England ;  but  threads  from  worn-out  woolen 
garments  long  supplied  much  of  the  material  for 
the  stockings  and  mittens  for  working  wear. 

In  these  pioneer  days  the  energies  of  the  colo 
nists  were  devoted  to  getting  together  the  raw 
materials  for  a  civilized  existence.  In  1640  the 
"  Generall  Court "  of  Connecticut  Colony  issued 
the  following  recommendation : 

"  Whereas  as  yt  is  observed  yt  experience  has 
made  appear  that  much  ground  within  these  lib- 
ertyes  may  be  well  improved  both  in  Hempe  & 
Flaxe  &  yt  we  myght  in  time  have  a  supply  of 
lynnen  cloath  amongst  o'selves  and  for  the  more 
speedy  procuring  of  Hempe  Seede  It  is  Ordered 
yt  every  family  within  these  plantations  shall 
pr'cure  and  plante  this  pr'sent  yeare  at  lest  onne 
spoonfull  of  English  hempe  seed  in  fruitful  soyle 
at  lest  a  foot  distant  betwixt  each  seed,  and  the 


84 

same   so  planted  shall   be  pr'served   and  kept  in 
husbandly  manner  for  supply  of  seed  another  yeare." 

The  following  year  the  same  ordinance  was 
repeated ;  after  that  it  may  be  supposed  that  enough 
seed  had  been  secured  for  future  planting. 

At  what  an  humble  distance  must  we  now  admire 
the  indomitable  and  uncomplaining  courage  with 
which  these  colonists  bore  their  material  as  well  as 
their  more  than  material  privations.  To  one  griev 
ous  privation  I  have  seen  no  reference  made  as  such. 
Perhaps  it  bore  so  heavily  upon  loving  hearts  that 
they  feared  to  give  expression  to  their  feelings,  and 
so  lift  the  flood-gates  of  their  suppressed  sorrows. 

There  is  preserved  a  letter  written  by  Mrs.  Lake 
when  she  had  been  living  in  this  country  twenty- 
eight  years.  Her  beloved  brother-in-law,  Win- 
throp,  had  gone  to  England  in  the  interests  of  the 
colonists,  and  Mrs.  Lake  thus  writes  to  him : 

"  I  would  desire  you  to  inquire  whether  my  sis 
ter  Breadcale  bee  livinge,  you  may  hear  of  her  if 
livinge,  at  Iron  Gate,  where  the  boats  weekly 
come  from  Lee." 

There  is  a  world  of  silent  and  weary  heartbreak 
in  this  and  similar  inquiries  in  the  same  letter. 

When  Mrs.  Lake  had  come  to  New  England, 
Charles  I,  Strafford,  and  Archbishop  Laud  were 
carrying  things  with  a  high  hand,  driving  the 
Puritans  out  from  the  folds  as  if  they  had  been 


_85_ 

wolves.  Between  that  time  and  the  date  of  Mrs. 
Lake's  letter  the  commonwealth  had  risen,  flour 
ished,  and,  when  the  mighty  man  who  gave  it 
form  had  passed  from  earth,  had  fallen,  and  the 
Restoration,  which  all  good  subjects  were  bound  to 
call  "happy,"  had  dropped  a  veil  over  things 
which  it  could  not,  and  others  which  it  would  not, 
undo.  Amid  all  their  own  troubles  and  overturn- 
ings,  it  is  scarcely  to  be  wondered  at  that  the 
relatives  left  at  "  home "  should  sometimes  have 
forgotten  to  write  to  their  kin  beyond  the  sea,  from 
whose  thoughts  they  were  never  long  absent.  The 
river  of  death  could  hardly  have  sundered  chiefest 
friends  more  effectually  than  did  the  turbulent 
Atlantic  then,  but  the  hungry  heart  would  still 
hope  and  cry  out  for  certainty. 

When  John  and  Hannah  Gallup  happily 
planned  and  stoutly  built  their  forest  homestead 
on  the  banks  of  the  little  Mystic  River,  it  well 
may  be  that  they  "  laid  its  foundations  in  the  feare 
of  God  and  reared  its  walls  in  the  terror  of  the 
Indians,"  as  Samuel  Smith  of  Hadley,  Massachu 
setts,  expressed  it  when  writing  in  his  old  age  in 
regard  to  the  erection  of  the  first  meeting-house  in 
Wethersfield,  Connecticut,  of  which  his  father  was 
pastor;  and  Samuel  could  speak  feelingly  upon 
the  subject,  having  himself,  in  his  young  manhood 
in  Hadley,  had  frequent  occasion  to  defend  his  own 
house  from  savage  attacks.  Reverence  for  God 
was  a  part  of  the  inheritance  of  the  Puritan  settlers, 


86 


and  terror  of  the  Indians  was  a  very  natural  con 
sequence  of  their  situation.  Whoever  may  have 
been  to  blame  in  the  first  instance,  there  is  no 
doubt  that  by  fifty  years  after  the  landing  at 
Plymouth,  the  question  of  proper  treatment  of  the 
Indians  received  but  one  answer  from  the  colonists  : 
"  We  must  extirpate  them  or  they  will  exterminate 
us."  At  our  distance  from  all  such  apprehensions 
it  is  easy  to  see  the  faults  of  the  white  men,  and  to 
sympathize  with  the  misused  Indian  he  was  dis 
placing;  but  had  we  lived  in  that  "time  and  under 
the  same  circumstances,  it  is  doubtful  if  we  would 
have  been  more  altruistic  than  were  our  sorely 
harassed  ancestors.  The  red  man  may  have  been 
as  unjustly  as  he  was  unwisely  treated  by  the  white  : 
but  he  was  savage ;  he  was  untractable ;  he  was 
cruel ;  he  was  treacherous.  If  his  provocations 
were  great,  his  vengeance  was  terrible.  His  vicinity 
was  an  unending  menace  to  the  home  of  every  settler. 
The  celebrated  "Great  Swamp  Fight"  of  1675 
was  so  called  to  distinguish  it  from  the  smaller 
Swamp  Fight,  which  occurred  at  almost  the 
other  extremity  of  Connecticut  in  1637.  In  the 
later  of  these  battles  the  power  of  the  truly  great 
chieftain,  King  Philip,  and  of  the  native  tribes  of 
New  England  was  forever  broken.  Perhaps,  yes, 
even  probably,  this  decisive  fight  might  have  been 
rendered  unnecessary  had  gentler  counsels  pre 
vailed  thirty  or  forty  years  before,  but  by  1675  it 
had  become  inevitable. 


8? 

When  the  colonial  forces  assembled  to  attack 
King  Philip's  fort  the  members  of  the  opposing 
parties  were  supposed  to  be  about  two  to  one  in 
favor  of  the  Indians,  full  half  of  whom  were  sup 
plied  with  muskets  as  well  as  with  their  native 
weapons ;  besides  this,  they  fought  behind  defenses 
which,  as  the  assaulting  party  had  no  cannon, 
must  have  seemed  to  be  almost  impregnable.  The 
Narragansetts  were  the  most  nearly  civilized  of  all 
the  New  England  tribes.  This  fort  was  of  their 
construction  and  was  well  built,  with  a  strong  and 
high  palisade  in  the  midst  of  a  vast  pine  and  cedar 
swamp.  As  an  additional  protection,  the  palisade 
was  surrounded  by  a  defensive  hedge  of  interlacing 
felled  trees,  several  feet  in  height  and  about  a  rod 
in  thickness.  Both  parties  to  the  conflict  felt  that 
they  were  fighting  for  their  families,  their  homes, 
even  their  very  existence  as  nations  in  these  wilds. 

The  second  John  Gallup  had  always  maintained 
pleasant  personal  relations  with  the  Indians  of 
whatever  tribe,  possessing  those  qualities  of  justice, 
firmness,  and  kindness  which  win  confidence ;  but 
the  moment  was  not  one  for  considerations  of  this 
sort  to  have  weight  with  either  side.  The  husband 
of  Hannah  Lake  was  no  longer  a  young  man, 
having  been  married  for  thirty-two  years ;  but  the 
hardy  pioneer  was  always  in  his  prime  between 
fifty  and  sixty,  and  age  had  bowed  neither  the 
back  nor  the  spirit  of  Captain  Gallup.  At  the 
head  of  his  company  of  eighty  men,  he  led  an 


88 


assault  upon  the  fort's  only  vulnerable  point,  which 
was  a  reasonably  well  protected  and  gallantly  de 
fended  gateway,  where  he  fell  with  twenty  of  his 
men. 

Whether  his  body  was  brought  home  to  the 
woman  who  had  loved  him  so  long  and  so  truly,  I 
do  not  know,  but  probably  it  was  not.  The  De 
cember  weather  was  bitterly  cold,  the  half-frozen 
morass  was  extremely  treacherous.  The  victorious 
party  had  already  marched  twenty  miles  that  day, 
fought  fiercely,  sustained  only  by  scant  rations  of 
frozen  food,  and  had  the  same  distance  to  walk 
back  again,  carrying  more  than  one  hundred  and 
fifty  wounded  men  with  them,  so  it  is  probable 
that  the  bodies  of  the  slain  were  hastily  interred 
on  the  spot  where  they  fell. 

Neither  do  I  know  how  long  the  wife  survived 
her  husband ;  but  I  do  know  that  the  name  of  the 
hero-sire  who  fell  in  defense  of  his  wilderness  home 
was  long  held  in  reverent  remembrance  by  his 
descendants.  In  a  journal  letter  kept  by  his  great- 
great-granddaughter,  Juliana  Smith  of  Sharon, 
Connecticut,  I  find  this  entry : 

"  This  evening  my  Mother  has  been  telling  me 
about  her  great-grandfather,  Captain  John  Gallup, 
who  was  killed  in  King  Philip's  War.  I  thank 
God  to  be  descended  from  such  a  man.  Truthful, 
Kind  and  Brave  ! " 


CHAPTER   V 

TWO   HOUSES   IN  OLD    NEW  AMSTERDAM 


0 


CHAPTER   V. 

TWO    HOUSES   IN   OLD 
NEW   AMSTERDAM. 


The  Long  Step  from  Con 

necticut  to  New  York. 

Comforts  of  the  Dutch. 

Mr.  David  Codwise  Tells 

of  the  Houses  of  his 

Grandfather  and  of  Nic- 

laes  Evertsen,  Grandson 

of  Lieutenant-Admiral 

Jan  Evertsen. 


ooo 


OOO 


is  a  long  step  both  in  time,  in 
^  _,  c^j  distance,  and  in  customs  from  the 
0  0  pioneer  home  in  New  London, 

^J  ^J    Connecticut,    started    in    1644,  to 

0C/°^D^    the    homes    of   prosperous  Dutch 
citizens  of  New  Amsterdam  in   1698. 

Material  progress  in  all  the  colonies  had  been 
enormous  during  the  years  that  had  intervened. 
It  has  always  been  believed  that  the  Dutch  settlers 
were  at  no  time  subjected  to  the  hardships  that  had 
been  so  grievous  to  the  Pilgrims  and  their  imme 
diate  successors,  but  that  may  have  been  a  mis 
taken  notion.  Early  Dutch  records  not  having  been 
so  thoroughly  searched,  and  letters,  if  any  are  in  ex 
istence,  being  in  a  foreign  tongue,  we  have  been  con 
tent  to  accept  the  conditions  of  later  days  as  char 
acteristic  of  the  earlier  ones  as  well.  This  much 
we  know,  that  times  were  comparatively  easy  when 
Niclaes  Evertsen,  a  recent  immigrant  from  Holland, 
perhaps  by  the  way  of  the  West  Indies,  married 
Margrietye  Van  Baal,  a  native  of  the  trading-post 
which  her  father  had  known  as  Fort  Orange, 
but  which,  eight  years  before  her  birth,  had 

91 


been  obliged  to  take  the  English  name  of  Al 
bany. 

Yes ;  times  were  not  hard  in  the  little  city  of 
New  York,  notwithstanding  that  it  had  been  cap 
tured  by  the  English,  who  were  by  no  means  as 
gentle  and  careful  nurses  of  their  colonies  as  the 
Dutch  had  been.  The  marriage  just  referred  to 
occurred  in  1698,  at  which  time  there  was  a  con 
siderable  degree  of  material  prosperity. 

The  Hollanders  were  natural  traders,  industri 
ous,  thrifty,  honest,  and  persevering:  Probably  no 
nation  had  fewer  vices  or  more  virtues,  and  the 
last  were  of  the  kind  that  bring  prosperity  in  their 
train.  The  English  government  paid  them  com 
paratively  little  attention,  and  the  shrewd  Dutch 
colonists  took  no  pains  to  awaken  the  interest  (or 
cupidity)  of  their  new  and  undesired  masters.  In 
preserving  a  salutary  obscurity  they  were  undoubt 
edly  aided  by  their  quiet  ways  and  their  language, 
which  few  Englishmen  cared  to  learn. 

New  York  was  now  the  little  city's  name  upon 
colonial  maps;  but  New  Amsterdam  it  still  re 
mained  in  the  hearts  of  its  citizens,  as  well  as  in  its 
customs  and  its  people  for  many  years  to  come. 
The  British  had  been  in  possession  for  about  thirty- 
five  years  when  Niclaes  Evertsen  built  his  broad- 
roofed  stone  and  shingle  house  somewhere  upon 
the  big  farm  which  is  said  to  have  stretched  from 
what  is  now  Fourth  Avenue,  between  Union  and 
Madison  squares,  to  the  East  River;  but  Dutch 


Q3 

^°  nrl 

was  still  the  language  of  the  people,  in  Dutch  were 
their  records  kept,  and  Dutch  were  all  their  tastes 
and  ways. 

The  very  first  comers  among  the  Dutch  settlers 
must,  like  the  New  England  and  all  other  pioneers, 
have  lived  in  huts  of  rough,  or  at  best  of  squared, 
logs;  but  instead  of  being  treated  with  biting 
neglect  like  the  colonies  of  England,  the  Dutch 
received  every  possible  aid  and  comfort  from  the 
government  of  their  mother-land,  and  stores  and 
supplies  of  all  sorts  were  sent  out  to  them  as  rap 
idly  as  possible  and  with  a  liberal  hand,  so  that 
they  were  supplied  with  the  comforts  of  those  days 
sooner  than  their  neighbors. 

Even  had  the  English  so  desired,  they  could  not 
have  given  to  their  colonies  as  many  comforts  as 
could  the  Dutch,  for  the  latter  were  far  in  advance 
of  the  former  in  all  the  peaceful  and  domestic  arts. 
In  addition  to  the  help  which  they  received  from 
the  home-land,  the  Dutch  were  fortunate  in  being 
most  advantageously  placed  for  acting  as  "  middle 
men"  between  Holland  and  the  native  American 
tribes,  and  thus  they  rapidly  accumulated  property ; 
hence  their  dwellings  speedily  became  seats  of 
comfort,  or  even  of  luxury,  as  those  terms  were 
then  used. 

The  late  David  Codwise,  for  many  years  a  mas 
ter  in  chancery  in  the  city  of  New  York,  dying  in 
1864  at  the  age  of  eighty-four  years,  was  the  hus 
band  of  a  sister  of  my  grandmother.  Under  their 


94 

most  hospitable  roof  many  of  my  girlhood's  happy 
days  were  spent,  and  not  the  least  happy  were  the 
hours  passed  in  listening  to  my  dear  great-uncle's 
descriptions  of  the  ways  and  things  in  old  New 
York.  Of  his  many  talks  I  took  some  notes,  and 
I  am  now  extremely  sorry  that  I  did  not  take 
more,  though  I  have  been  able  to  glean  supple 
mentary  information  from  the  many  letters,  wills, 
and  expense-accounts  now  in  my  possession  and 
relating  to  the  periods  of  which  he  told. 

I  do  not  now  remember  whether>  the  first  of  the 
two  houses  which  Mr.  Codwise  described  to  me  in 
considerable  detail  had  belonged  to  his  maternal 
or  paternal  great-grandfather ;  I  think,  to  the  latter. 
Its  date,  set  in  small  red  tiles  in  the  yellow  brick 
walls  over  its  principal  door,  was  A.D.  1700.  This 
house,  my  uncle  said,  was  the  duplicate  of  one 
which  was  erected  at  or  about  the  same  time  by 
his  ancestor's  partner  and  most  intimate  friend, 
Captain  Niclaes  Evertsen.  The  latter  was  the 
grandson  of  the  Lieutenant-Admiral  Jan  (or 
Johan)  Evertsen,  a  knight  of  the  Order  of  St. 
Michael,  and  one  of  the  most  famous  officers  of 
old  Holland's  famous  navy,  to  whose  harvest  of 
heroes  his  family  had,  in  the  course  of  less  than 
a  century,  supplied,  besides  himself,  no  less  than 
three  vice-admirals,  one  commodore,  and  five 
scheepsbcvclhebbers  (ship-commanders).  At  least 
seven  of  the  nine  died  in  battle.  Jacob  de  Liefde, 
in  his  book  on  the  "Great  Dutch  Admirals,"  says 


95 

that  fifteen  of  the  Evertsens  had  borne  the  name 
honorably  in  battle  both  on  land  and  on  sea,  and 
one  must  wonder  that  the  immigrant  Niclaes  was 
content  to  remain  a  merchant  and  captain  of  one 
of  his  own  ships,  peacefully  trading  between  New 
Amsterdam  and  the  West  Indies.  But  times  had 
changed.  Holland  and  England  had  become  friends, 
and  the  claws  of  Spain  and  Portugal  had  been  too 
closely  clipped  to  be  longer  dangerous  to  their 
enemies.  So  to  Captain  Evertsen  in  the  new  land 
his  title  had  acquired  a  purely  peaceful  signifi 
cance.  That  his  business  was  profitable  is  proved 
by  the  estate  which  he  left,  and  by  the  generous 
plenishings  and  furnishings  of  his  unusually  large 
and  commodious  house. 

Among  the  notes  which  I  took  from  Mr.  Cod- 
wise's  conversations  I  am  glad  to  find  a  description 
and  a  rough  plan  of  the  ground  floors  of  what 
were  in  their  day  considered  two  of  the  finest 
dwellings  on  the  island  of  Manhattan.  They 
were  built  at  about  the  same  time — after  the  same 
design  and  probably  by  the  same  workmen  —  for 
two  men  who  were  partners  in  business  and  at 
tached  friends — Captain  Niclaes  Evertsen,  and 
the  ancestor  of  Mr.  Codwise,  whose  surname 
may  have  been  either  Codwise  or  Beeckman,  as 
that  was  the  maiden  name  of  my  great-uncle's 
mother. 

The  Codwise  house  stood  on  what  is  now  Dey 
Street,  where  it  was  still  considered  a  handsome 


96 

residence,  until  destroyed  by  fire  not  long  before 
my  great-uncle's  twentieth  birthday. 

Land  on  Manhattan  Island  was  not  then  sold 
by  the  inch,  and  these  two  houses  were  built  with 
a  glorious  contempt  of  economy  of  space.  In  the 
center  of  each  rose  a  great  chimney-stack  of  stone, 
having  four  immense  fireplaces,  each  striding 
across  the  corner  of  a  wide,  low-ceiled,  broad-win 
dowed  room  about  twenty-two  feet  square.  On 
either  side,  beyond  the  four  rooms  thus  grouped 
around  the  chimney-stack,  were  ,two  others  of 
about  equal  dimensions,  each  having  its  own  fire 
place,  for  two  more  chimneys  rose,  one  in  each 
gable-end  of  the  houses.  The  first  story  of  the 
Evertsen  house  was  built  of  stone ;  that  of  the  Cod- 
wise  house  was  constructed  of  buff-colored  brick 
imported  from  Holland  —  a  needless  expense,  as 
Mr.  Codwise  used  to  say,  because  brick-making 
was  one  of  the  earliest  and  most  successful  indus 
tries  started  in  the  new  land. 

In  both  houses  the  exterior  walls  of  the  upper 
stories  were  covered  by  overlapping  cedar  shingles, 
clipped  at  the  corners  to  produce  an  octagonal 
effect,  as  one  may  see  them  in  certain  cottages  of 
to-day.  In  front  and  at  the  gable-ends  the  second 
stories  projected  a  little  beyond  the  lower.  At  the 
rear  there  was  but  one  story,  the  long  roof  sloping 
from  the  peak  by  a  slightly  inward-curving  sweep 
till  it  terminated  over  the  low,  comfortable-looking 
stoep,  upon  which  opened  the  rear  windows  and 


97 

doors  of  the  first  floor.  All  the  first-floor  rooms 
were  handsomely  wainscoted,  and  these,  as  well  as 
the  heavy  ceiling  beams,  were,  as  Mr.  Codwise  re 
membered  them,  cased  and  painted  white.  Each 
fireplace  was  surrounded  by  borders  of  tiles,  all 
illustrating  scriptural  or  naval  scenes,  save  one  set, 
which,  in  reddish  brown  figures  on  a  white  ground, 
portrayed  the  adventures  of  Don  Quixote.  One 
of  these  last  tiles  I  saw  in  Mr.  Codwise's  possession 
in  1860.  The  walls  of  one  room  in  each  of  the 
houses  were  hung  with  embossed  leather,  which 
had  once  been  richly  decorated  in  arabesque  de 
signs,  and  even  in  my  great-uncle's  remembrance 
the  gold  tracings  had  not  been  badly  tarnished. 
Other  walls  in  the  best  rooms  of  both  houses  were 
hung  with  a  very  substantial  sort  of  paper,  pic 
tured  with  sprawling  landscapes  in  which  wind 
mills,  square-rigged  boats,  and  very  chunky  cows 
figured  prominently.  This  was  said  to  have  been 
put  on  soon  after  the  houses  were  built.  Accord 
ing  to  the  custom  of  the  time,  the  bedrooms  were 
always  washed  with  lime. 

On  the  second  floor  there  were  six  rooms  across 
the  front,  extending  to  the  center  of  the  house. 
The  rest  was  left  unceiled  —  a  big  open  garret 
with  square  windows  at  each  end  and  dormers 
along  the  sides  of  the  roof,  which  sloped  from  the 
peak  to  the  floor.  In  this  great  garret  flax-hatchel- 
ing,  wool-carding,  and  weaving  went  on  almost 
without  cessation,  save  in  the  very  coldest  weather, 


98 


when  the  looms  were  abandoned  to  the  compan 
ionship  of  the  rows  of  smoked  hams  hanging  from 
the  huge  beams,  the  long  ropes  of  sausage-links, 
the  festoons  of  dried  apples,  and  all  the  other 
stores  which  could  endure  the  winter  frosts.  Those 
that  could  not  do  this  were  safely  packed  away  in 
the  dim  recesses  of  the  deep  cellars  which  ran 
under  the  whole  house.  The  latter  was  ventilated 
during  the  summer  by  leaving  open  the  low  doors, 
which  formed  a  sort  of  sloping  roof,  covering  the 
stone  steps  leading  from  the  outer  air  on  all  sides 
of  the  house  to  the  deeps  below.  In  winter  these 
doorways  were  filled  in  with  straw  and  dried 
leaves,  while  earth  and  sods  were  laid  over  the 
closed  doors  in  order  to  effectually  exclude  the 
frost.  After  this  was  done,  late  in  the  fall,  the  pitch- 
dark  cellars  could  only  be  entered  by  the  interior 
stairs. 

The  diamond-paned  and  leaded  window-sashes 
had  originally  been  brought  from  Holland ;  but 
by  the  time  Mr.  Codwise  could  remember  them, 
all  but  a  few  had  been  replaced  by  other  sashes 
filled  with  nearly  square  panes,  twelve  to  each 
sash.  This  glass  was  so  full  of  knots  and  streaks 
that  no  object  seen  through  it  appeared  to  be 
entire,  but  to  be  broken  into  disjointed  parts. 
The  glass  of  the  imported  diamond-shaped  panes 
was  much  clearer. 

At  what  time  the  Evertsen  house  was  taken 
down,  or  whether  it  was  burned,  I  do  not  know, 


99 

but  believe  it  to  have  been  burned  a  few  years 
before  the  Codwise  mansion.  After  the  destruc 
tion  of  each  of  them  Mr.  Codwise  said  that  in  the 
center  of  the  central  chimney-stack,  which  re 
mained  standing  like  a  strong  tower  in  the  midst 
of  the  ruins,  was  found  a  small,  diamond-shaped 
chamber,  across  the  longest  diameter  of  which  two 
men  might  have  lain  down  side  by  side.  The 
floor  of  this  chamber  was  of  brick,  and  its  side 
walls  were  the  stone  backs  of  the  four  corner  fire 
places.  Ceiling  it  had  none,  for  the  walls  of  the 
flues  sloped  inward  as  they  rose,  until  at  the  top  of 
the  stack  there  was  only  a  comparatively  small 
opening,  through  which  the  noonday  sun  might 
send  a  blinking  ray  to  cheer  the  floor  beneath,  or 
rain  or  snow  might  pitilessly  descend.  The  little 
chamber  was  entered  from  opposite  directions 
by  two  strait  doors  which  formed  the  backs  of  two 
of  the  eight  narrow  closets  flanking  the  four  fire 
places.  Good  and  secure  hiding-places  these 
chambers  were,  whether  for  men  or  for  treasure. 
My  uncle  said  that  his  father  had  seen  the  one  in 
their  house  used  for  both  purposes  during  our 
Revolutionary  War,  and  to  oblige  both  Tories 
and  patriots;  for  his  ancestors,  whether  the  pater 
nal  Codwise  or  the  maternal  Beeckman,  had  main 
tained  a  strict  neutrality,  and  were  able  sometimes 
to  extend  a  measure  of  protection  to  personal 
friends  in  either  party  in  their  times  of  need.  It 
is  needless  to  say  that  the  cautious  heads  of  the 


100 


families  did  not  confide  the  secret  of  the  chimney- 
stack  to  many  persons.  In  summer  this  hiding- 
place  must  have  been  rather  damp ;  but  in  winter, 
when  the  fires  were  burning  in  all  four  of  the  fire 
places  which  surrounded  it,  it  may  not  have  been 
an  altogether  uncomfortable  refuge. 

A  long,  covered  passageway  led  from  one  end 
of  the  stoepto  a  corner  of  the  kitchen,  which  then, 
as  is  still  usual  in  our  Southern  States,  was  in  a 
detached  building.  Beyond  it,  again,  stretched 
away  the  negro  quarters,  built  sometimes  of  logs 
and  sometimes  of  brick  or  stone,  and  mostly  of 
one  story  in  height.  At  right  angles  with  these 
were  the  barns  and  stables,  low,  but  exceedingly 
broad ;  also  a  blacksmithy,  where  horses  and  oxen 
were  shod  and  repairs  made,  and  a  carpenter's 
shop.  Taken  together,  the  outbuildings  made 
three  sides  of  a  hollow  square  in  which  were  the 
milking-  and  feeding-yards.  All  this,  of  course, 
was  on  the  farmstead  of  the  Evertsens.  The 
owners  of  the  Dey  Street  house  were  merchants 
only,  and  had  no  outbuildings  save  stables  for  a 
pair  of  horses  and  a  cow  or  two.  It  must  be 
remembered  that  nearly  all  well-to-do  citizens  kept 
cows  enough  to  supply  at  least  all  the  milk  for 
family  use  until  the  very  latter  part  of  the  eigh 
teenth  century. 

Neither  of  these  houses  followed  the  common 
Dutch  custom  of  standing  with  gable-end  to  the 
street.  Both  opened  from  the  center  of  the  two- 


101 


story  front  almost  directly  upon  the  §cantily  trav 
eled  highway,  but  at  the  rear  were  surrounded  by 
fruit-orchards  and  large  gardens,:  wherein: :  great 
square  beds  of  vegetables  were  edged  by  borders 
of  box  or  of  flowers,  as  the  case  might  be  —  for 
your  true  Dutchman  is  not  confined  to  strict  util 
ity,  but  is  a  flower-lover  and  cultivator  all  his 
days. 

A  peculiarity  of  both  houses  was  that  the  only 
closets  were  those  which  flanked  the  fireplaces  or 
surmounted  the  high  and  narrow  mantels.  Great 
carved  chests  of  hard  woods  and  massive  mahogany 
structures  of  drawers,  or  combinations  of  shelves 
and  drawers,  were  to  be  found  in  nearly  every 
room  occupied  by  the  members  of  a  wealthy 
Dutch  family.  Apparently  clothes  were  never 
hung  up,  but  always  laid  away  at  full  length  in 
these  and  similar  receptacles. 

In  a  large  old  mahogany  wardrobe  which  once 
stood  in  the  Evertsen  house,  the  three  drawers 
which  form  the  lower  half  are  very  deep.  The 
shelves  which  form  the  upper  half  are  equally 
deep,  and  shove  in  and  out  like  drawers,  only  with 
out  fronts,  while  broad  doors  close  over  them. 
The  wood  still  shows  its  beautiful  grain,  though  it 
has  turned  almost  black  with  age,  while  the  artis 
tically  cut  brass  of  the  handles  and  escutcheons 
responds  to  the  labor  of  the  polisher  as  brightly  as 
it  could  have  done  two  centuries  ago. 

Among  other  articles  which  once  stood  in  the 


102 


old  Eyert&en  house  is  a  tall  mahogany  structure 
apparently  designed  for  many  uses,  whose  five 
k»ng;  and  shallow  drawers  might  have  held  its 
owner's  coats  and  breeches  of  satin  or  velvet,  his 
long  silk  stockings,  his  fine  linen  shirts  frilled  with 
costly  laces,  and  even  his  voluminous  wig.  In 
the  center,  behind  a  leaf  which  turns  down  to 
form  a  desk,  is  the  little  bank  of  pigeonholes  for 
holding  filed  papers,  just  as  we  see  them  in  more 
modern  desks,  only  that  among  them  are  secret 
receptacles  for  private  papers,  and  two  slides 
which,  when  drawn  out,  were  intended  to  support 
candlesticks  in  such  a  way  that  the  never  too  bril 
liant  candle-light  should  best  fall  upon  the  desk's 
contents.  Above  the  pigeonholes,  behind  the 
doors  of  mahogany,  rise  broad,  deep  shelves  which 
may  have  been  used  to  hold  books  or  clothes  or 
bed-  and  table-linen.  To  my  mind,  the  varied 
divisions  of  the  shelf-space  are  not  so  suggestive 
of  literature  as  they  are  both  of  the  linen  of  the 
housewife  and  of  the  tall  ledgers  of  the  prosper 
ous  merchant,  with  long  accounts  to  keep  between 
the  traders  of  the  interior,  his  correspondents  in 
the  West  Indian  islands  of  Tobago,  St.  Thomas, 
and  Santa  Croix,  and  with  the  merchants  and 
manufacturers  of  Antwerp  and  Amsterdam. 

Though  few  books  have  descended  to  us  from 
the  ancestral  homes  of  New  Amsterdam,  it  does 
not  prove  that  their  owners  were  any  more  illit 
erate  than  the  settlers  of  the  other  colonies.  The 


103 

change  of  language  from  Dutch  to  English  would 
account  for  the  natural  disappearance  of  many  of 
the  Dutch  books.  I  know  of  one  sacrilegious 
creature  who  admits  that  about  thirty  years  ago 
she  destroyed  some  forty  Dutch  volumes  which 
she  had  found  in  a  garret  of  a  house  which  her 
husband  had  inherited,  "  to  get  them  out  of  the 
way,  though  the  bindings  of  some  were  so  pretty 
it  was  almost  a  pity." 

A  serpentine  sideboard  of  mahogany  finely 
inlaid  with  satinwood,  now  in  the  possession  of 
one  of  the  Evertsen  descendants,  is  believed  also 
to  have  stood  in  this  house.  It  is  known  to  have 
descended  through  six  generations  to  its  present 
owner.  Sideboards  there  must  have  been  here, 
for  there  was  much  silver  and  china,  scattered  pieces 
of  both  of  which  still  remain.  It  is  said  that  there 
was  little  of  the  latter  sold  in  New  York  city 
prior  to  1730.  However  this  may  have  been,  it  is 
certain,  from  the  quantities  that  were  bequeathed, 
that  wealthy  residents  owned  much  china  long 
before  that  date.  Canton  china  was  privately 
imported  at  a  very  early  period. 

Not  far  from  the  present  abiding-place  of  the 
curiously  decorated  and  really  beautiful  escritoire 
above  described  is  a  mirror  in  two  parts,  the 
smaller  about  one  quarter  the  size  of  the  larger, 
the  whole,  with  its  frame  of  mahogany  and  the 
carved  figures  of  gilded  wood  which  surround  it, 
being  about  six  and  one  half  feet  in  height  by  two 


104 

feet  in  width.  The  glass  is  said  to  be  of  Venetian 
make,  and  is  still  remarkably  clear.  So  is  that  of 
two  oval  mirrors  set  in  frames  of  beautifully  cut 
brass,  bearing  on  each  side  girandoles  for  three 
candles.  The  last  two  mirrors  have  been  presented 
to  a  historical  society. 

Dining-tables  with  many  slender  legs,  bed 
steads,  both  of  mahogany  and  of  black  oak,  each 
with  four  high  posts  and  deep  side  pieces,  all 
richly  carved,  but  too  thick  to  be  graceful,  and 
cabinets  curiously  inlaid  with  ivory  and  tortoise- 
shell,  stood  in  both  of  these  old  houses,  and  some 
of  the  fine  pieces  are  still  in  existence.  Tradition 
associates  all  the  things  we  have  particularly  men 
tioned  with  the  old  Evertsen  house;  but  they 
may  not  have  belonged  to  the  first  Niclaes  and 
Margrietye.  Many  of  them  were  probably  added 
by  their  son,  the  second  Niclaes  and  his  wife, 
Susanna  Reuters,  the  great-granddaughter  of  the 
famous  Admiral  De  Ruyter,  who  had  many  a  time 
fought  side  by  side  with  the  Admiral  Evertsen 
who  was  her  husband's  great-grandfather.  The 
two  old  sea-kings  had  not  always  been  agreed  in 
regard  to  the  best  way  to  serve  their  fatherland ; 
but  both  of  them  were  true  patriots  and  grand 
men,  and  did  justice  to  each  other's  honesty  and 
capacity,  so  we  may  imagine  that  they  would 
have  blessed  the  union  of  their  descendants. 

One  possession  which  the  first  Niclaes  must 
have  guarded  with  the  most  jealous  care,  perhaps 
keeping  it  hidden  in  the  secret  strong  room,  was 


the  silver-hiked  sword  presented  by  the  state  of 
Zealand  to  his  grandfather,  the  brave  old  Admiral 
Jan  Evertsen.  The  hilt  of  this  sword,  then  broken 
from  its  blade,  was  seen  in  Poughkeepsie,  New 
York,  by  my  father  when  he  was  a  boy  of  about 
fifteen,  that  is,  in  1825  or  1826.  It  was  then  in 
the  guardianship  of  a  Mr.  Richards,  who  had  mar 
ried  a  daughter  of  Nicholas  Evertsen,  the  third  of 
his  name  in  this  country,  and  a  great-grandson  of 
the  first  Niclaes.  Upon  the  hilt  was  a  handsomely 
engraved  inscription  in  the  Dutch  language,  which, 
unfortunately,  the  greatly  interested  boy  could  not 
understand;  but  he  well  remembered  the  names 
and  date.  The  latter  we  do  not  now  recall ;  but 
my  brother,  Gilbert  Livingston  Smith  of  Sharon, 
Connecticut,  my  sister,  Mrs.  Robert  Clinton  Geer 
of  Brooklyn,  New  York,  and  I  have  all  heard  our 
father  relate  the  incident  and  describe  the  hilt  and 
inscription  too  often  not  to  have  them  impressed 
upon  our  memories.  The  date  upon  the  sword- 
hilt  must  have  been  previous  to  1666,  as  that  was 
the  year  in  which  the  old  hero  died,  fighting 
against  England  in  a  naval  battle  of  four  days' 
duration,  on  the  first  day  of  which  his  bmther  Cor- 
nelis,  also  an  admiral,  had  perished.  The  hilt, 
my  father  said,  was  very  heavy,  and  the  size  such 
that  it  could  only  have  been  wielded  by  an  unusu 
ally  large  hand.  Almost  all  the  men  descended 
from  the  first  owner  of  this  sword  have  been  very 
large  and  strong. 

Mr.  Codwise  remembered  having  heard  of  this 


io6 


weapon,  and  also  had  heard  his  father  tell  of  a  fine 
gold  medal  which  Captain  Niclaes  Evertsen  had 
shown  to  some  friends  in  his  presence  when  a  boy 
—  a  medal  which  had  been  presented  to  Admiral 
Evertsen  by,  as  he  believed,  the  States-General  of 
Holland. 

What  has  become  of  these  precious  articles  ? 
Are  they  still  in  the  possession  of  some  branch  of 
a  family  which  has  become  scattered  through 
several  of  the  States  of  our  Union?  Or  have 
they, —  have  they  —  shameful  thought !  —  shared 
the  fate  of  so  many  of  what  should  have  been  cher 
ished  heirlooms,  and  lost  their  identity  in  the  sil 
versmith's  hateful  melting-pot? 

As  all  old  American  families  too  well  know, 
there  came  a  time  when,  old  ideals  having  slipped 
away  like  children's  outgrown  garments,  it  was 
long  esteemed  a  weakness  to  have  a  care  for  heir 
looms  as  such.  During  this  most  deplorable  in 
terval,  how  many  invaluable  ancestral  relics  were 
ignobly  converted  into  spoons  and  forks !  An 
uncle  of  my  own  — a  man,  too,  who  had  more  than 
usual  regard  for  ancestral  relics  —  within  my  own 
recollection  caused  five  dinner-plates  of  beaten 
silver,  dating  from  between  1600  and  1650,  to  be 
melted  to  make  a  large  pitcher!  The  latter  is 
indeed  much  more  beautiful  than  the  plates,  which 
were  as  plain  as  pewter  and  not  a  bit  handsomer, 
but  I  never  look  at  it  without  regretting  its 
existence. 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE    CARES    OF   THE   HUYSVROUW 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  CARES  OF  THE 
HUYSVROUW. 


Every  Homestead  a 
Manufactory. 

Slavery. 

Good  Providers. 

Spinning  and  Weaving. 

Soap  and  Candle  Making. 

Washing. 

Bread  and  Yeast. 

Butter  Making. 

Nursery  Lore. 


IT  seems  to  have  been  the  rule  in  all 
the  colonies  that  the  wealthier  the 
settler  the  greater  the  amount  of 
labor  constantly  carried  on  under  his 
roof.  There  were  no  manufactories, 
and  almost  everything  needed  for  household  con 
sumption  or  service  had  necessarily  to  be  either 
imported  or  made  at  home.  The  huysvrouw's  labors 
were  by  no  means  confined  to  the  wise  dispensing 
of  the  liberally  provided  stores.  She  and  her 
daughters  were  happy  and  contented  producers,  as 
well  as  dispensers  and  consumers.  If  they  did 
not  personally  scrub  the  uncarpeted  floors,  or 
build  and  feed  the  ever-devouring  flames  in  the 
enormous  fireplaces,  or  hatchel  the  flax,  or  card 
the  wool,  or  weave  the  heavy  stuffs  for  household 
use,  or  make  the  soap,  or  chop  the  sausage-meat, 
or  dip  the  candles,  or  wash  the  linen — they  had  to 
know,  as  only  experience  can  know,  just  how 
each  and  all  of  these  things  should  be  done,  and 
also  how  to  so  marshal  and  direct  their  many 
hand-men  and  -maidens  that  the  most  and  best 
work  should  be  accomplished  with  the  least  fric- 

109 


110 


tion.  When  reading,  as  one  occasionally  does  in 
our  day,  of  some  "  wonderful  woman  "  who  super 
intends  a  factory,  or  carries  on  some  other  line  of 
equally  active  business,  we  should  remember  that 
very  likely  her  grandmother  once  had  as  much 
responsibility,  and  fulfilled  it  as  well,  without  hav 
ing  to  go  beyond  the  bounds  of  her  own  house  to 
do  so. 

The  days  of  the  huysvrouws  were  also  those  of 
negro  slavery,  and  they  display  all  the  best  and 
some  of  the  worst  features  of  the  system.  If,  on 
the  one  hand,  the  house-mistress  were  always  sure 
of  retaining  the  services  of  a  well-trained  and 
faithful  servant,  on  the  other  hand  it  was  by  no 
means  easy  to  get  rid  of  one  who  was  sulky, 
stupid,  or  careless.  In  fact,  the  servant  question 
was  as  general  a  topic  among  the  interested  two 
centuries  ago  as  it  is  now.  Kings  may  go  and 
Presidents  come,  and  institutions  may  change  like 
the  weather,  but  human  nature  remains  the  same, 
and  the  diaries  of  from  ten  to  tenscore  years  ago 
are  found  full  of  lamentations  over  the  shortcom 
ings  of  domestics. 

Every  farmstead  of  any  pretension  had  to  be, 
at  the  same  time,  a  manufactory  of  almost  all  the 
things  required  for  daily  use.  It  is  not  probable 
that  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century 
there  were  many  meat  markets  (or  "  fleshers  ")  to 
be  found,  even  in  the  cities,  and  supplies  of  fowls 
and  meat  of  all  sorts  save  game  were  produced 


Ill 


on  the  farms,  where  all  that  could  not  be  economi 
cally  disposed  of  while  fresh  was  preserved  by 
drying  or  spicing  or  salting  or  smoking  for  win 
ter  use.  Several  weeks  of  steady  labor  were  re 
quired  in  each  autumn  to  prepare  the  barrels  of 
salted  pork  and  of  corned  beef,  to  cure  the  scores 
of  hams  and  sides  of  bacon,  to  prepare  the  miles 
of  sausage-links,  to  try  out  and  preserve  the  many 
stone  jars  full  of  lard  so  nicely  that  it  would  keep 
sweet  the  year  round,  to  prepare  the  souse,  the 
headcheese,  and  the  rollichies.  These  last  were 
made  of  chopped  beef  rolled  in  tripe  and  smoked. 
When  desired  for  the  table  the  little  rolls  were 
boiled  and  served  cold,  or  fried  and  eaten  hot. 
Besides  all  these,  each  in  its  proper  season,  were 
prepared  stores  of  fish  of  various  sorts,  pickled, 
dried,  or  spiced,  and  great  quantities  of  winter 
vegetables,  as  well  as  such  fruits  as  could  be  kept 
for  winter  use  by  drying,  or  by  preserving  with 
sugar  by  the  pound-for-pound  method,  so  solidly 
sweet  that  the  descendants  of  those  who  ate  them 
must  envy  the  grandparents'  powers  of  digestion. 

Of  all  the  colonies,  the  Dutch  were  the  most 
famous  for  these  delicious  (and  indigestible)  con 
serves.  More  than  the  others  also  did  they  distil 
and  prepare  an  endless  variety  of  cordials  and 
fragrant  waters  for  drinks  or  for  flavoring  to  dainty 
dishes.  Their  mince-pies,  fairly  tipsy  with  their 
liberal  allowances  of  hard  cider  or  brandy,  or  both, 
their  famous  supplies  of  cookies,  of  crullers,  of 


112 


olekoeks  (doughnuts),  and  of  spiced  cakes,  were 
regularly  made  once  or  twice  a  week.  Waffles, 
wafers,  raised  muffins,  and  griddle-cakes  of  various 
sorts  were  in  daily  tea-table  use.  Supawn,  made 
of  corn-meal  boiled  in  water,  salted  and  stirred  the 
while  with  a  wooden  spoon  till  thick  and  smooth, 
took  the  place  of  modern  cereals,  and  was  served 
on  every  breakfast-table  the  year  round.  It  was 
eaten  either  with  butter  and  that  good,  old-fash 
ioned  West  India  molasses  which  no  searching 
can  now  discover,  or  with  milk.  Sometimes,  when 
the  weather  was  too  hot  or  too  cold  to  make  good 
butter,  there  was  cream  used,  but  usually  this  had 
to  be  saved  to  make  butter ;  at  the  same  time, 
skimmed  milk  would  have  been  considered  too 
mean  a  portion  to  offer  to  the  cats.  Dried  fruits 
which  had  been  previously  soaked  overnight 
were  often  cooked  with  and  stirred  through  the 
supawn,  giving  an  added  flavor  which  was  much 
relished. 

The  poultry-yard  was  every  huysvrouw's  pride. 
Even  the  wife  of  the  importer,  banker,  or  profes 
sional  man  living  in  the  city  kept  flocks  of  hens, 
geese,  ducks,  and  sometimes  turkeys ;  but  as  the 
turkey  was  a  notorious  wanderer,  and  its  eggs  were 
not  prized  for  eating,  nor  its  feathers  for  beds,  it 
was  never  very  plentiful  in  the  New  Amsterdam 
poultry-yards. 

Oysters  and  clams  were  brought  in  large  quan 
tities  in  the  late  autumn,  and  buried  in  beds  of 


"3 

clean  sea-sand,  mixed  with  Indian  meal,  in  the 
cellars,  where  they  were  profusely  watered  twice  a 
week  with  water  brought  in  tubs  from  the  bay  or 
river.  In  this  way  they  were  said  to  keep  fat 
and  good  until  the  ice  had  broken  up  in  the  early 
spring,  and  the  vast  beds  of  native  shell-fish 
which  lay  beneath  the  waters  surrounding  Man 
hattan  Island  were  again  accessible.  It  must  be 
remembered  that  these  waters  were  then  frozen  a 
great  part  of  the  winter,  there  not  being  sufficient 
traffic  to  keep  the  ice  broken  as  now. 

Game  of  all  kinds,  from  deer  to  quails,  was 
abundant  for  many  years,  and  for  at  least  twenty 
years  subsequent  to  our  Revolutionary  War  was 
both  plentiful  and  cheap  in  the  markets. 

For  many  years  there  were  no  public  bakeries, 
and  the  family  bread-making  was  no  inconsidera 
ble  toil.  Even  in  the  days  of  Margrietye  Evert- 
sen's  granddaughters  there  was  less  yeast  used 
than  leaven.  The  latter  is  a  lump  of  the  latest 
baking  buried  in  flour  and  kept  in  a  cool,  dry 
place  until  needed  for  the  next  baking.  Number 
less  were  the  accidents  which  might  happen  to 
this.  A  degree  too  cold  or  a  trifle  too  damp,  and 
the  leaven  would  not  rise,  so  the  bread  was  heavy ; 
or  a  degree  too  hot,  and  the  leaven  would  ferment, 
and  so  the  bread  was  sour.  If  the  sponge  stood 
too  short  or  too  long  a  time,  or  its  tempera 
ture  was  not  just  right,  again  there  was  trouble. 
If  the  big  brick  oven  was  under-heated,  the  well- 


.Ill- 
made  loaves  would  over-rise  and  sour  before  they 
were  sufficiently  baked,  or  they  might  be  removed 
too  quickly  from  the  oven,  and  the  half-baked 
dough  would  fall  into  flat  and  solid  masses.  If 
the  oven  was  over-heated,  the  loaves  would  again 
be  heavy,  for  the  crust  would  form  before  the 
bread  had  had  time  to  take  its  last  rising  in  the 
oven  as  it  should.  The  only  wonder  is  that  in 
those  days  there  was  ever  any  good  bread;  but 
the  testimony  is  ample  that  among  the  Dutch 
huysvrouws  good  bread  was  rather  the  rule  than 
the  exception. 

Probably  the  experienced  cooks  could  never 
have  told  how  they  did  it ;  but  practice  had  made 
them  so  perfect  that  they  knew  to  a  second  and  a 
degree  just  the  time  and  the  heat  required.  A 
relative  of  my  mother  had  married  a  wife  of 
unbroken  Dutch  descent,  and,  with  a  tenacity 
characteristic  of  her  progenitors  in  clinging  to  all  old 
ways  that  had  been  proved  to  be  good  (and  even, 
it  must  be  confessed,  to  some  that  had  not),  she 
continued  to  use  the  old  brick  oven  as  long  as  she 
lived,  and  everything  baked  in  it  seemed  to  my 
childish  taste  to  be  perfection  of  its  kind.  She 
superintended  every  step  of  the  long  opera 
tion,  from  the  setting  of  the  sponge  overnight 
(with  yeast,  though,  instead  of  leaven  :  she  had 
been  induced  to  consent  to  this  innovation)  to  the 
removal  of  the  sweet,  light  loaves  from  the  oven 
sometime  during  the  next  forenoon.  Full,  round 


"5 

loaves  of  a  brown  so  light  as  to  be  almost  golden,  I 
can  see  them  now,  standing  in  rows  slightly  aslant 
so  that  air  could  pass  beneath,  and  covered  loosely 
with  spotless  cloths  of  coarse  linen,  which  last 
was  as  home-made  as  the  bread,  only  not  in  her 
own  time,  but  in  that  of  her  mother.  Poor 
Auntie  Aaltje  (Aletta)  would  never  have  believed 
it  possible,  but  after  her  death  it  was  discovered 
that  the  dark-faced,  white-turbaned  old  Chloe,  who 
for  so  many  years  had  patiently  called  her  mistress 
to  test  the  oven,  and  without  a  word  (but  some 
times  with  a  covert  smile)  had  accepted  the  pa 
tronizing  verdict  that  "  it  would  do,"  required  no 
"  superintending."  But  the  huysvrouw  who  did  not 
personally  oversee  all  the  important  operations  of 
housekeeping  would  have  seemed  to  herself  and  to 
others  to  have  failed  in  her  vocation. 

One  of  the  most  troublesome  of  all  the  house 
wife's  duties  was  the  quarterly  soap-making.  I  ^/ 
can  remember  this  function  as  performed  at  this 
house.  Ugh !  what  a  troublesome  thing  it  was, 
and  unsavory!  For  several  weeks  the  "leach-tubs" 
stood  in  an  outhouse  filled  with  tightly  packed 
hard  wood-ashes  from  the  big  fireplaces,  where 
wood  was  always  burned  during  my  kinswoman's 
life.  The  tubs,  or  rather  big  barrels,  being  filled 
to  within  about  eight  inches  of  the  top  with 
the  ashes,  were  supported  upon  frames,  beneath 
which  stood  small  wooden  tubs.  Twice  a  day  the 
vacant  space  left  above  the  ashes  was  filled  with 


boiling  water.  This,  after  it  had  slowly  filtered 
through  the  ashes,  became  lye.  Its  strength  was 
tested  by  an  egg  or  by  a  potato  about  the  size  of 
an  egg.  If  these  would  float  about  one  third  of 
their  size  above  the  lye,  it  was  deemed  strong 
enough ;  if  not,  it  was  poured  through  the  ashes 
again ;  if  found  too  strong,  water  was  added. 

When  enough  lye  of  the  right  strength  had 
been  collected,  it  was  put  into  enormous  iron  pots 
and  hung  from  the  cranes  over  the  open  fire ;  and 
though  my  relative  had  come  to  enchire  a  cook-stove 
for  ordinary  things,  she  always  used  the  fireplace 
for  making  soap.  The  fragments  of  grease  which 
accumulate  in  every  household  had  been  tried  out 
while  fresh,  and  reduced  to  cakes  like  tallow,  only 
not  so  hard.  These  were  now  cut  up  and  put  into 
the  kettles,  apparently  by  guess.  Then  the  boil 
ing  went  on.  If  it  was  all  right  the  soap  would 
"  come  "  in  half  an  hour.  If  not,  it  might  be  many 
hours,  or  even  days,  during  which  water,  or  stronger 
lye,  or  weaker  lye,  or  more  grease  might  be  added, 
also  apparently  by  guess.  The  soap,  when  at  last 
successfully  produced,  was  in  substance  like  a  good, 
firm  jelly;  in  color,  a  marbled  brown;  its  odor 
that  of  a  clear,  clean  alkali.  It  was  very  good  for 
scrubbing  and  also  for  laundry  purposes,  though  it 
must  not  be  used  too  freely  or  it  would  yellow  the 
clothes.  It  never  made  holes  in  them,  as  some  of 
the  modern  sorts  do.  The  husband  was  of  Hugue 
not  descent,  and  progressive  in  all  things,  so  that 


the  quarterly  soap-making  ended  in  his  house  after 
his  wife's  death. 

This  Auntie  Aaltje  was  as  decidedly  Dutch  in 
her  ways  as  if  she  had  been  her  own  grandmother. 
While  she  lived  there  must  no  chum  be  used  save 
the  tall  stoneware  jar,  perhaps  the  same  one — at  any 
rate,  one  probablyjust  like  it — which  her  old  grand 
mother  had  caused  her  maids  to  fill  to  one  half  its 
capacity  with  good,  rich,  yellow  cream,  and  place, 
according  to  the  season,  in  a  tub  of  ice-cold  or  of 
hot  water.  One  of  the  maids  meanwhile  stood 
patiently  beside  the  jar,  plying  the  dasher  up  and 
down  with  rapid,  even  strokes  until  the  butter 
"came."  This  also  was  done  by  guess;  but  if 
the  huysvrouw's  "  guessery  "  was  good  —  in  other 
words,  if  she  were  an  expert  —  the  cream  would 
have  been  skimmed  and  put  into  the  churn  at  pre 
cisely  the  right  moment  and  at  the  right  tempera 
ture;  then,  in  from  twenty  minutes  to  half  an 
hour,  the  golden  globules  would  have  formed  and 
gathered,  and  the  butter  would  be  ready  to  be 
skimmed  out  into  a  round  tray  of  maple-wood, 
beautifully  white,  and  made  cold  with  well-water 
and  "  sweet  with  salt."  Then  with  a  water-soaked 
ladle  the  buttermilk  was  pressed  out  and  salt 
added.  This  was  the  butter's  first  working.  After 
a  few  hours  it  was  again  worked,  and  the  next 
morning  for  the  third  time.  The  huysvrouw  did 
not  wash  her  butter.  To  extract  the  buttermilk 
she  depended  upon  the  conscientious  muscular 


labor  of  her  maids  in  pressing  it  all  out.  If  this 
were  not  successfully  done  the  butter  would  soon 
become  rancid.  The  only  wonder  was  that  quan 
tities  did  keep  perfectly  sweet  and  good,  though 
very  salt,  from  one  June  until  the  next.  June 
and  October  were  considered  the  best  months  for 
packing  winter  butter,  the  conditions  of  tempera 
ture  and  food  for  the  cows  being  then  nearest  to 
perfection. 

The  custom  of  quarterly  clothes-washings  had 
J  been  brought  from  Holland,  and  was  long  con 
tinued  here  among  the  Dutch  settlers,  notwith 
standing  that  our  summer  heats,  and  the  immense 
quantities  of  clothes  necessary  to  maintain  the  state 
of  cleanliness  required  by  Dutch  instincts  and  tra 
ditions,  must  have  rendered  it  exceedingly  incon 
venient.  As  lately  as  1760,  we  find  in  an  old  letter 
that  "  Grandmother  Blum  is  so  deep  in  her  Quar 
terly  wash  this  Weeke  that  she  has  no  time  only 
to  send  her  love."  The  writer  of  the  letter  was  a 
New-Englander  married  to  a  citizen  of  New  York 
city,  and  the  custom  undoubtedly  was  strange  to 
her.  The  washing  was  usually  done  in  an  out 
house  called  a  bleeckeryen  where  the  water  was 
heated  over  the  fire  in  immense  kettles,  and  all  the 
other  processes  of  laundry  work,  conducted  by  the 
most  laborious  methods,  were  carried  on  there. 
This  work  usually  required  not  less  than  a  week, 
and  quite  frequently  two  weeks.  During  the  three 
months  intervening  between  these  periods  of  cruelly 


"9 

hard  labor,  the  soiled  clothes  had  been  accumulat 
ing  from  day  to  day  in  very  large  hampers  of  open 
basketvvork,  and  stored  in  the  bleeckeryen.  It  was 
this  system  of  quarterly  washings  that  rendered  — 
and  in  parts  of  Holland  and  of  Germany  still  ren 
ders  —  necessary  the  great  stores  of  household  and 
personal  linens  which  are  supposed  to  be  brought 
to  her  new  home  by  every  bride,  and  for  which 
the  mothers  begin  to  prepare  almost  from  the  birth 
of  the  first  daughter.  This  preparation  continued 
in  the  new  land  long  after  the  custom  of  quarterly 
washings  had  given  place  to  the  much  more  sen 
sible  and  sanitary  custom  now  prevailing. 

As  the  Grand  Opera  House  in  Paris  was  lighted 
with  candles,  affording  certainly  a  dim  if  not  a  re 
ligious  light,  until  sometime  during  the  Regency,  it 
is  not  to  be  supposed  that  lamps  came  into  use  in 
the  far-away  little  city  of  New  Amsterdam  until  a 
great  many  years  later.  In  fact,  there  is  little  men 
tion  of  the  use  of  oil  lamps  in  America  before  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Wax  candles 
were  imported  for  festival  occasions,  but  immense 
quantities  of  tallow  candles  were  yearly  dipped  or 
molded  for  ordinary  consumption.  In  all  regions 
where  the  waxy  and  deliciously  fragrant  bayberry 
was  plentiful,  candles  were  made  from  it.  When 
well  prepared  the  wax  was  slightly  translucent  and 
of  a  light  green  in  color.  The  snuff  emitted  so 
delicate  an  odor  that  on  festive  occasions,  where 
many  candles  were  burning,  it  was  usual  to  blow 


120 


some  of  them  out  at  frequent  intervals  so  that  the 
room  might  be  kept  pleasantly  perfumed. 

The  great  dependence  for  cheerful  light  as  well 
as  for  warmth  in  winter  must  have  been  upon  the 
blazing  knots  of  resinous  wood  dexterously  dis 
tributed  in  among  the  slower  burning  logs  of  hick 
ory,  oak,  and  maple.  By  the  blaze  of  these 
friendly  fires  there  was  seen  much  domestic  happi 
ness  and  much  social  enjoyment  of  a  homely  sort. 
The  Dutch  family  relations  were  singularly  close 
and  intimate.  Parental  affection  was  especially 
strong  and  tender. 

Among  the  descendants  of  old  Dutch  families 
here  there  still  remain  so  many  fragments  of  the 
nursery  rhymes  which  used  to  charm  the  round- 
faced  little  Dutch  lads  and  lassies  that  there  must 
once  have  existed  a  copious  literature  of  nursery 
lore.  Part  of  one  such  jingle  I  can  remember  as 
my  father  sang  it  to  my  younger  brother,  who  was 
a  remarkably  beautiful,  black-eyed  little  fellow, 
then  probably  about  two  years  old.  I  remember 
his  teasing  my  father  to  play  "  trip-trop  "  with  him. 
Then  my  father  crossed  his  knees,  and  sat  Willie 
astride  of  the  suspended  foot,  holding  him  in  place 
by  the  two  hands.  Then,  swinging  up  and  down 
the  foot  holding  the  delighted  child,  the  rich, 
melodious  barytone  trolled  out  a  catch  of  which  I 
could  only  recall  the  first  and  last  lines  until  the 
missing  ones  were  supplied  by  Mrs.  Vanderbilt  in 


121 



her  most  interesting  "  Social  History  of  Flatbush." 
The  completed  rhyme  runs  : 

"  Trip  a  trop  a  tronjes. 

De  vorkens  in  de  boonjes, 
De  koejes  in  de  klaver, 
De  paarden  in  de  haver, 
De  eenjes  in  de  waterplass, 
So  groot  myn  kleine  [-     -]  was." 

Mrs.  Vanderbilt  translates  this  as  follows : 

"  The  father's  (or  mother's)  knee  a  throne  is. 
As  the  pigs  are  in  the  beans, 
As  the  cows  are  in  the  clover, 
As  the  horses  are  in  the  oats, 
As  the  ducks  are  splashing  in  the  water, 
So  great  my  little  [-     -]  is." 

When  the  child's  name  was  of  more  than  two 
syllables  poppetje  was  substituted,  this  meaning 
poppet,  doll,  or  baby,  a  term  of  endearment.  Sev 
eral  of  my  relations  of  Dutch  descent  used  to  call 
me  their  "  kleine  poppetje."  At  the  close  of  the 
last  line  of  the  foregoing  jingle  the  singer  is  sup 
posed  to  toss  the  child  as  high  as  he  can  reach. 
My  father's  paternal  grandmother,  from  whose  lips 
he  had  learned  the  little  Dutch  jingle  when  a  boy, 
was  born  Margaret  Evertson,  and  was  a  great- 
granddaughter  of  the  first  Niclaes  Evertsen. 


122 


To  play  "  trip-trop "  was  always  my  little 
brother  Willie's  bedtime  entertainment  by  the  open 
nursery  fire.  So  handsome  and  so  happy  were  my 
father  and  little  brother,  so  impossible  does  it  seem 
to  associate  the  idea  of  death  with  either,  that  even 
now  I  cannot  believe  that  they  have  joined  the 
other  dear  fathers  and  babies  who  played  "  trip- 
trop  "  so  many  generations  before  them. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE   ESCAPE   OF   A    HUGUENOT   FAMILY 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  ESCAPE  OF  A  HU 
GUENOT  FAMILY, 

<¥> 
Edict  of  Nantes  and  its 

Revocation. 

The  Huguenot  Exodus. 

Arts  Carried  Abroad. 

Daniel  L'Estrange. 

A  Huguenot  "Lady  in 

Waiting." 

An  Effectual  Disguise. 

To  New  Rochelle  by 

Way  of  England. 


VERY  one  knows  of  the  French  reli 
gious  wars  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
and  of  the  terrible  massacre  of  St. 
Bartholomew,  followed,  after  more 
wars,  by  the  accession  of  "  Henry  of 
glorious  memory,"  and  by  his  promulgation,  in 
1598,  of  the  celebrated  Edict  of  Nantes.  This 
edict  by  no  means  made  all  men  equal  before  the 
law,  but  at  least  it  granted  toleration,  as  well  as 
the  most  important  of  civil  rights,  and  a  measure 
of  protection  to  the  French  Protestants.  Almost 
as  well  known,  but  not  so  often  brought  to  mind, 
is  the  long  course  of  gradual  encroachment  on  the 
rights  conferred  upon  the  Protestants  by  that  edict. 
This  encroachment  never  ceased  until — long  after 
the  rights  granted  by  the  edict  had  been  practically 
withdrawn  —  the  edict  itself  was  formally  revoked, 
in  1685,  ^7  Louis  XIV. 

There  is  nothing  in  history  more  remarkable 
than  the  patience  with  which  these  constantly 
increasing  and  most  odious  persecutions  were  borne 
by  the  persecuted,  except  the  fatuity  which  led  to 
the  final  act  of  despotism,  causing  the  expatriation 

"5 


126 


of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  the  best  citizens  of 
France.  If  non-resistance  to  tyranny  be  a  virtue, 
the  Huguenots,  for  nearly  half  a  century,  had  been 
the  most  virtuous  of  people.  If  adherence  to  their 
principles  under  every  form  of  ill-treatment  be  a 
folly,  their  folly  was  unapproached.  Either  way 
they  suffered  for  conscience'  sake,  and  no  people 
in  the  history  of  the  world  have  exceeded  them  in 
this.  Politically,  the  Protestant  minority  of  the 
nation  had  no  differences  with  the  Catholic  major 
ity.  All  were  alike  loyal  to  the  monarchical  form 
of  government  and  to  the  existing  dynasty ;  there 
was  no  conflict  of  race  or  of  province ;  and  those 
of  both  the  highest  and  the  lowest  social  positions 
were  to  be  found  alike  in  the  ranks  of  both  parties. 
Religion  was  the  sole  ground  of  division. 

In  the  decade  preceding  the  Revocation  of  the 
Edict  of  Nantes,  the  exodus  of  the  Huguenots 
from  all  parts  of  France  had  been  great  and  con 
tinuous,  in  spite  of  the  utmost  vigilance  on  the 
part  of  the  authorities.  The  numbers  of  the  escaped 
have  been  variously  estimated  at  from  five  hun 
dred  thousand  to  three  millions.  Some  good 
judges  think  that  about  eight  hundred  thousand 
would  be  a  conservative  estimate. 

In  spite  of  his  blind  arrogance,  Louis  Quatorze 
was  not  so  stupid  as  to  wish  to  deport  the  best- 
behaved  and  most  productive  of  all  his  subjects. 
He  only  made  the  mistake  of  supposing  that  he 
could  command  the  minds  and  consciences  as 


127 

easily  as  he  could  the  arms  and  purses  of  his  sub 
missive  people.  To  this  end  he  determined  to 
buy  heaven  for  himself  by  "converting"  the 
Huguenots  to  his  own  faith,  and  at  the  same  time 
to  maintain  the  material  prosperity  of  his  kingdom 
by  preventing  the  escape  of  the  many  gentlemen 
of  landed  estates,  the  bankers,  the  wealthy  manu 
facturers,  and  the  artisans  who,  at  this  time,  com 
posed  the  bulk  of  the  detested  party.  Hence 
every  new  act  of  persecution  was  accompanied  by 
additional  precautions  to  prevent  the  escape  of  the 
victims. 

Most  fortunate  of  all  the  Huguenots  were  those 
who  dwelt  nearest  the  frontier.  Under  the  terrible 
and  infamously  effective  system  of  the  "drago- 
nades,"  it  is  truly  wonderful  that  such  large  num 
bers  of  the  persecuted  should  have  succeeded  in 
reaching  places  of  safety ;  but  the  many  are  always 
better  than  the  few.  Thousands  of  the  refugees 
long  held  in  grateful  remembrance  the  names  of 
their  Roman  Catholic  neighbors  who,  often  at  the 
risk  of  their  own  estates  or  even  of  their  lives, 
gave  valuable  assistance  in  the  flight  of  their 
Protestant  friends. 

No  matter  how  fiercely  might  bum  the  anger 
of  the  obstinate  monarch  at  seeing  the  industries 
of  the  Netherlands,  Germany,  Switzerland,  and 
Great  Britain  built  up  by  those  who  had  there 
sought  refuge  from  his  own  tyranny,  he  still  had 
the  chagrin  of  knowing  his  best  subjects  to  be 


128 


continually  escaping  from  his  clutches;  and  to 
day  the  descendants  of  the  Huguenots  are  among 
the  worthiest  and  most  enterprising  of  all  the 
citizens  of  the  countries  which  he  most  hated. 

Many  of  those  Huguenots  who  escaped  to  Eng 
land  subsequently  came  to  her  colonies.  Although 
most  of  the  refugees  had  been  prosperous  in 
France,  and  not  a  few  had  been  wealthy  citizens, 
comparatively  few  had  been  able  to  take  much 
money  away  with  them — the  circumstances  of 
their  flight  precluded  that;  but  fhey  all  brought 
energy,  industry,  thrift,  and  power  of  endurance, 
as  well  as  that  truly  delightful  birthright  of  their 
nation,  an  invincible  lightness  of  heart,  while  many 
of  them  also  possessed  skill  in  some  hitherto  pecu 
liarly  French  handicraft,  or  in  mechanical  methods 
of  unusual  scope. 

Like  the  Plymouth  Pilgrims,  the  Huguenots 
came  without  any  backing  of  national  trade  or 
class  interest ;  but  while  the  first  came  to  preserve 
civil  and  religious  rights  which  they  were  fearful 
of  losing,  the  latter  were  involuntary  exiles  who, 
having  already  lost  all  rights,  were  flying  for  their 
lives,  and  were  of  all  social  grades,  embracing  a 
few  noblemen,  a  larger  number  of  la  petite  noblesse 
who  would  have  been  called  "gentlemen  com 
moners  "  in  England,  and  of  professional  men, 
merchants,  bankers,  manufacturers,  and  artisans, 
besides  a  comparatively  small  number  of  peasants. 
Of  the  last-named  there  were  fewer  than  of  the  other 


classes,  partly,  perhaps,  because  it  was  impossible 
to  escape  from  their  enemies  without  the  use  of 
a  great  deal  of  money.  Those  who  came  were 
probably  brought  at  the  expense  of  the  richer  col 
onists,  who  expected  to  be  repaid  in  labor. 

Notwithstanding  that  the  difference  of  their  pre 
vious  social  conditions  might  have  been  supposed 
to  prevent  a  strong  feeling  of  unity  among  the 
Huguenot  refugees,  their  "  oneness  of  heart  and 
mind  "  was  from  the  first  an  object  of  wonder  to 
the  Dutch  and  English  colonists,  by  whom  they 
had  been  kindly  welcomed.  The  persecuted 
were  bound  together  by  a  common  language, 
common  perils,  and  a  common  faith.  In  their 
little  settlement  at  New  Rochelle  there  was  for 
many  years  as  near  an  approach  to  apostolic 
ways  of  living  as  has  been  seen  since  apostolic 
days.  They  were  received  most  kindly  by  the 
earlier  colonists,  but  they  asked  for  no  charity 
for  even  the  poorest  among  them.  All  who  had 
been  successful  enough  in  sending  money  out  of 
France  in  advance  of  themselves,  or  had  been  able 
to  bring  any  with  them,  placed  their  funds  at  the 
disposal  of  their  chief  men,  to  be  shared  as  necessity 
required.  It  is  said  that  they  invariably  cared  for 
their  own  poor,  and  that  these  did  not  remain  long 
in  poverty,  but  were  soon  able  to  return  all  the 
sums  which  had  been  advanced  to  them  by  the 
wealthier  members  of  the  flock. 

Some   of  the  most  flourishing  of  the  hitherto 


purely  French  industrial  arts,  such  as  the  fine  linen, 
silk,  tapestry,  and  china  manufactures,  had  been 
gradually  carried  to  England,  Germany,  and  Hol 
land  by  the  escaping  Huguenots  during  the  long 
years  of  persecution  preceding  the  Revocation  of 
the  Edict  of  Nantes.  Therefore  to  their  brethren 
in  these  older  lands  the  refugees  in  the  new  land 
sent  for  looms  and  other  machines  of  better  quali 
ties  than  had  hitherto  been  known  here. 

They  did  not  have  the  capital  to  start  their  own 
industries  on  a  large  scale ;  neithe;  did  the  British 
Colonial  Office  offer  anything  but  discouragement 
for  such  undertakings;  but  every  household  be 
came  a  little  industrial  colony,  those  who  had 
never  labored  before  now  learning  to  do  so  with 
cheerful  hearts. 

The  Huguenots  were  as  sternly  Calvinistic  in 
their  principles  as  ever  were  the  Plymouth  Pil 
grims ;  but  these  principles  did  not  seem  to  impart 
any  bitterness  to  their  natures.  The  little  settle 
ment  in  the  colony  of  New  York  which  they 
fondly  called  New  Rochelle  was  from  the  first  an 
abode  of  poverty  and  hardships  most  cheerfully 
borne.  My  dear  mother's  ancestry  was  very  largely 
Huguenot,  and  from  a  few  records  of  the  traditions 
of  her  mother's  family  I  have  gleaned  some  frag 
ments  of  interest  which  probably  have  a  strong  re 
semblance  to  the  family  histories  of  many  others 
of  similar  descent. 

In  1672  Daniel  L'Estrange  of  Orleans,  France, 


was  matriculated  as  a  student  of  philosophy  in  the 
Academy  of  Geneva,  Switzerland,  which  at  that 
time  was  the  only  existing  place  where  a  French 
Protestant  could  receive  a  liberal  education  in 
his  own  language.  The  "  pretended  reformed  " 
were  not  allowed  to  have  schools  of  their  own  in 
France ;  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  was  it  permitted 
to  them  to  send  their  children  to  the  Catholic 
schools  without  previously  renouncing  their  own 
and  professing  the  national  faith. 

A  few  years  later  we  find  that  M.  L'Estrange 
married  Charlotte  Le  Mestre,  also  of  Orleans.  A 
few  years  later  still,  the  pair  are  residing  in  Paris, 
where  the  husband  is  traditionally  believed  to 
have  been  an  officer  of  the  Royal  Guard — a  tra 
dition  which  seems  to  derive  some  support  from 
the  fact  that  after  his  arrival  in  England  he  is 
known  to  have  held  a  lieutenancy  in  the  Royal 
Guard  of  James  II.  Strange  as  it  may  seem,  many 
Huguenots  filled  positions  in  the  personal  guard 
of  Louis  XIV,  where  they  were  comparatively 
safe  from  persecution,  as  their  places  were  held  by 
a  certain  unwritten  law  of  inheritance  from  the 
days  when  Henry  IV  had  filled  its  ranks,  from  the 
commander  down  to  the  privates,  with  those  upon 
whose  fidelity  he  could  best  rely ;  and  these  were 
undoubtedly  his  old  brethren  in  arms  and  in  the 
faith  which  political  reasons  had  caused  him  to 
forsake. 

While  her  husband  was   in  the  Royal  Guard, 


Mme.  L'Estrange  was  one  of  the  ladies  in  wait 
ing  upon  the  dauphiness,  Marie  de  Baviere,  the 
gracious,  studious,  retiring,  and  accomplished 
daughter-in-law  of  Louis  XIV.  Thus  the  wife 
of  the  Huguenot  was  often  obliged  to  serve  her 
turn  of  duty  at  St.  Germain  and  sometimes  at 
Versailles.  Although  Mme.  L'Estrange  was 
well  known  to  be  of  the  "  pretended  reformed " 
faith,  she  was  not  molested,  because  she  was  a 
recognized  favorite  of  the  dauphiness.  Perhaps 
the  position  ot  his  wife  at  court  combined  with 
his  own  in  the  Royal  Guard  to  save  M. 
L'Estrange  for  a  while  from  persecution,  although 
he  was  known  to  be  a  determined,  if  not  an  aggres 
sive,  Huguenot;  but  the  time  came  when  he  was 
obliged  to  seek  safety  in  flight,  and  that,  too,  with 
out  seeing  his  wife.  She  was  then  performing  her 
tour  de  service  at  Versailles;  and  her  husband  could 
only  send  her  a  verbal  message,  requesting  that  she 
should  join  him,  with  their  child,  and  as  much  of 
their  property  as  she  could  convert  into  ready 
money,  at  some  designated  point  on  the  coast, 
where  he  would  wait  for  her  as  long  as  possible, 
and  whence  they  could  take  ship  for  England. 

The  person  who  was  intrusted  with  the  message 
either  could  not  or  did  not  convey  it  to  the  wife 
until  many  days,  if  not  some  weeks,  after  her  hus 
band's  flight  from  Paris.  I  relate  the  story  as  I 
heard  it  from  the  lips  of  my  maternal  grandmother, 
who  had  heard  it  from  her  paternal  grandfather. 


Some  of  the  particulars  which  she  related  are  also 
given  in  Baird's  "  History  of  the  Huguenot  Emi 
gration  to  America."  I  believe  that  the  parts 
which  rest  only  upon  oral  tradition  are  not  less 
trustworthy  than  those  quoted  by  Mr.  Baird,  which 
rest  upon  documentary  evidence. 

The  husband's  message  was  at  last  delivered, 
not  directly  to  the  wife,  but  to  some  one  who  con 
veyed  it  to  the  dauphiness.  In  spite  of,  or  rather 
perhaps  because  of,  her  high  position,  the  dauphi 
ness  was  herself  so  closely  watched  that  she  had 
not  the  opportunity  to  transmit  the  husband's 
message  safely  until  the  hour  of  the  coucher,  which 
that  night  chanced  to  be  particularly  late.  As  the 
Huguenot  lady  was  slipping  the  night-robe  over 
the  head  of  the  dauphiness,  the  latter  hastily 
whispered : 

"  In  the  cabinet  at  the  foot  of  the  stairs  leading 
to  my  apartments,  you  will  find  one  who  will  tell 
you  what  you  must  do,  and  do  without  a  moment's 
delay."  Aloud  she  added :  "  I  am  sorry  you  are 
suffering  so  much.  You  are  excused  from  duty 
until  I  send  for  you." 

A  few  moments  later  Mme.  L'Estrange  was 
in  the  designated  cabinet.  There  she  first  heard 
that  her  husband  had  left  Paris,  she  having  for 
some  time  supposed  him  to  be  in  hiding  in  that 
city,  and  also  learned  that,  his  flight  having  become 
known  to  the  authorities,  his  property  had  been 
confiscated.  The  kind  dauphiness  had  thought- 


fully  given  a  purse  of  money  to  the  messenger, 
but  it  was  not  large,  as  she  was  not  highly  favored 
by  her  father-in-law,  and  had  never  very  much 
cash  at  her  command.  The  messenger  had  also 
two  horses  in  readiness,  and  was  ordered  to  accom 
pany  Mme.  L'Estrange  until  she  should  have 
got  safely  started  on  her  journey,  under  the  care  of 
friends  whom  she  was  expected  to  meet.  But  the 
dauphiness  had  apparently  forgotten  the  existence 
of  the  child.  The  infant  of  two  years  was  under 
the  care  of  the  married  sister  of  Mme.  L'Estrange 
in  Paris,  and  thither  the  mother  felt  that  she  must 
first  proceed,  though  the  delay  was  well-nigh  fatal 
to  the  success  of  her  undertaking. 

So  well  watched  was  every  avenue  of  escape 
from  Paris  that  several  days  were  lost  before  an 
opportunity  for  leaving  presented  itself.  One 
morning,  before  daybreak,  Mme.  L'Estrange  dis 
guised  herself  as  a  very  poor  woman  seeking  to 
go  beyond  the  walls  to  glean  food  from  the  over 
laden  market-wagons  coming  in.  She  carried  her 
sleeping  child  in  her  arms.  Her  twin  sister,  dressed 
in  all  respects  precisely  like  herself,  followed  at  a 
safe  distance.  Arrived  at  the  city  gate,  the  mother 
begged  to  be  allowed  to  take  her  child  with  her, 
but  was  not  permitted ;  and  it  was  only  by  address 
ing  the  sentry  in  his  native  patois  of  the  Orleans 
country  that  he  was  induced  to  let  the  mother  her 
self  pass  out,  while  he  retained  the  child  as  a  hos 
tage  for  her  return.  Two  hours  later,  while  the 


'35 

awakened  child  was  crying  lustily,  and  the  half- 
distracted  sentry  was  busily  looking  for  contraband 
goods  in  the  market-wagons  of  the  peasants,  the 
aunt  suddenly  appeared,  as  if  she  had  come  in  with 
the  wagons,  and  claimed  the  child,  which  was  gladly 
yielded  to  the  supposed  mother.  Not  for  many 
years  after  did  the  true  mother  again  see  her  child ; 
but  when  he  was  grown  he  came  to  America,  and 
married  here.  He  it  was  who  related  the  story  to 
his  son,  the  father  of  my  mother's  mother. 

During  several  weeks  after  Mme.  L'Estrange 
had  escaped  from  Paris  her  adventures  were  many. 
When  she  finally  reached  the  coast,  it  was  only  to 
find  that  her  husband  had  been  obliged  to  fly  some 
time  before.  Her  voyage  to  England  was  made 
inside  of  one  of  the  very  large  casks  in  which  the 
common  kinds  of  wine  were  shipped  to  the  whole 
sale  dealers  in  London.  In  similar  casks  more 
than  sixty  persons  are  said  to  have  been  shipped, 
at  the  same  time,  in  the  hold  of  the  same  small 
trading-vessel,  whose  English  captain  was  liberally 
paid  for  running  the  risks  attending  such  ship 
ments. 

During  several  years  there  were  many  hundreds, 
if  not  thousands,  of  escapes  made  in  the  same  man 
ner  ;  and  who  can  now  imagine  the  horrors  of  such 
a  voyage?  The  trip  across  the  English  Channel 
is  not  very  welcome  to  the  majority  of  travelers 
to-day,  when  not  more  than  two  or  three  hours  are 
required,  in  vessels  which,  though  bad  enough 


136 

according  to  our  present  standards,  are  princely 
compared  with  those  of  two  centuries  ago.  In 
those  days  it  frequently  took  a  week  to  cross,  and 
sometimes  as  long  a  time,  or  longer,  was  spent 
rocking  at  anchor,  waiting  for  a  favorable  wind. 
Of  course,  the  casks  holding  human  freight  were 
not  hoisted  on  board  until  the  latest  moment ; 
but  whether  waiting  on  shore  in  momentary  peril 
of  detection,  or  confined  in  casks  on  board  ship, 
what  an  eternity  must  every  hour  have  seemed  ! 

With  a  small  store  of  wine  in  a>  leather  bottle, 
and  some  bread,  a  pillow  or  two,  and  such  cloth 
ing  as  might  be  conveniently  packed  in  with  her, 
the  wretched  refugee  was  placed  in  the  great  cask, 
into  the  sides  of  which  many  small  holes  had  been 
bored  to  admit  air  without  attracting  notice.  The 
head  of  the  cask  was  then  secured  in  its  place,  and 
—  carefully  right  side  up  —  it  was  placed  in  the 
hold,  where  it  was  skilfully  braced  to  prevent  its 
being  rolled  about  when  the  vessel  was  under  way. 
My  mother  had  seen,  in  the  possession  of  one  of 
her  mother's  brothers,  a  small  pillow,  filled  with 
softly  carded  rolls  of  wool,  covered  with  a  stained 
and  faded  slip  of  brocaded  silk,  which  was  sacredly 
treasured  because  it  had  eased  the  buffeted  head 
of  the  revered  great-grandmother,  when  she  was 
tossed  about  in  her  narrow  prison  in  the  hold  of 
the  blockade-running  vessel  on  the  uneasy  waves 
of  the  English  Channel. 

Their  "  Red  Sea  "  the  refugees  were  wont  to  call 


137 

this  Channel,  though  they  certainly  did  not  cross  it 
in  the  triumphant  fashion  of  the  hosts  whom  Moses 
led  from  bondage  to  freedom.  Some  of  the  "  cask 
refugees  "  were  found  suffocated  when  their  "  arks 
of  refuge  "  were  unheaded.  Many  more  were  se 
riously  injured.  The  only  wonder  is  that  such  great 
numbers  were  taken  from  the  French  coast  in  this 
way,  and  that  so  many  escaped  without  more  than 
temporary  injuries,  before  the  persecuting  authori 
ties  had  discovered  and  put  a  stop  to  similar  ship 
ments.  More  fortunate  than  those  who  had  to 
cross  the  Channel  were  those  who,  like  the  ances 
tors  of  my  mother's  father,  Bolden  (or  Bauldoin) 
by  name,  were  able  to  cross  the  frontiers  into  the 
Low  Countries.  They  had  trials  enough  and  hair 
breadth  escapes  by  dozens,  but  their  bodily  suffer 
ings  were  much  less. 

For  the  first  few  years  after  their  escape  M. 
and  Mme.  L'Estrange  fared  comparatively  well  in 
England,  because  the  friends  of  the  former  had 
procured  for  him  a  lieutenancy  in  the  Royal  Guard 
of  James  II.  But  this  monarch  was  not  himself  a 
Protestant,  and  not  too  well  disposed  toward  the 
Huguenots,  though  state  policy  forced  him  to 
receive  them  well.  It  was  probably  for  this  rea 
son  that  Lieutenant  L'Estrange,  a  few  months 
before  James  was  forced  to  fly  from  his  throne, 
sold  his  commission,  and,  with  the  proceeds  of  this 
sale  and  that  of  some  jewels,  came,  with  his  wife,  to 
this  country.  Here  he  soon  joined  the  settlement 


138 

at  New  Rochelle,  and  there  and  in  New  York  city 
for  many  years  he  taught  his  own  language  to 
those  Americans  who  wished  to  learn  it,  as  well  as 
gave  instruction  in  the  classical  languages  to  boys 
who  wished  to  enter  Yale  or  Columbia  (then 
King's)  College. 

At  the  same  time,  his  wife,  and  later  on  their 
daughters,  all  of  whom  were  born  here,  applied 
themselves  to  the  new  duties  imposed  by  the  new 
circumstances,  in  the  cheerful  spirit  common  to  all 
persons  who  lead  lives  of  faith  and  kindliness. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

HUGUENOT    HOMES    IN    NEW    ROCHELLE 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

HUGUENOT  HOMES  IN 
NEW  ROCHELLE. 

<$ 

Life  less  Toilsome  than 
with  Most  of  the  Colonists. 

Attachment  to  the 

Services  of  their  Church. 

Refugees  not  Colonists. 

Loyalty  to  the  Land  of 

their  Adoption. 

Little  Daintinesses  of 

House  Furnishing. 


ao1 


life  in  the 

holds  was  probably   less  toilsome 
0  O     tnan   in  almost  any  others  in  the 

c°l°mes-  The  refugees  were  too 
intelligent,  industrious,  and  re 
sourceful  not  to  be  able  to  escape  many  of  the 
hardships  of  the  very  poor  among  the  other  colo. 
nists ;  and  they  were  too  poor  to  be  oppressed  by 
the  multitude  of  anxieties  and  responsibilities 
inevitable  to  the  rich  citizens  who  then  had  to 
superintend  the  exercise  of  all  sorts  of  labors  under 
their  roof-trees. 

All  of  the  very  poor  colonists  must  have  had 
certain  hardships  to  endure;  but  help  of  every  sort 
was  scarce,  and  sober  and  industrious  persons  were 
always  sure  of  constant  employment,  while  their 
tasks,  like  their  lives,  were  of  the  simplest.  At 
the  same  time,  the  home  of  every  wealthy  family 
was  an  industrial  center.  Thus  there  were  no 
drones  in  either  the  richest  or  the  poorest  hives. 
The  Huguenots,  belonging  to  neither  class,  were 
in  a  sense  cooperative.  Neither  the  privations  of 
the  poor  nor  the  multiplied  cares  of  the  rich  fell 

141 


upon  any  with  excessive  weight;  hence,  notwith 
standing  the  varying  grades  of  original  social  posi 
tion  and  culture,  there  was  a  great  equality  of 
living  and  enjoyment  among  them. 

It  was  twenty  years  after  the  first  Huguenots 
came  to  New  Rochelle  before  the  refugees  could 
spare  the  money  to  build  a  church  or  support  a 
pastor.  The  nearest  place  where  religious  services 
were  held  in  their  own  tongue  was  New  York 
city,  twenty  miles  away;  therefore,  on  every  Sun 
day  during  the  year,  in  fair  weather  or  in  foul,  all 
who  wTere  able  to  do  so  started  very  early  in  the 
morning,  that  they  might  not  miss  the  opening 
prayer  at  10.30  A.M.  There  were  few  horses 
owned  among  the  refugees,  and  fewer  vehicles 
of  any  kind.  Such  of  both  as  they  possessed  were 
devoted  exclusively  to  the  use  of  those  who  were 
not  strong  enough  to  walk. 

Many  persons  now  living  may  still  remember 
Miss  Isabella  Donaldson,  lately  of  Barrytown, 
New  York,  as  a  person  greatly  interested  in  reli 
gious  matters.  She  kept  a  scrap-book  composed 
of  original  communications  concerning  the  hard 
ships  and  trials  of  those  who  had  come  to  this 
country  under  stress  of  persecution.  In  this  book 
was  a  copy  of  a  letter  which  was  written  about 
1704  or  1705.  I  give  this  letter  as  I  copied  it  in 
1860  from  Miss  Donaldson's  scrap-book: 

"  Every  week  I  see  the  Huguenots  pass  the 
house  in  troops  on  their  way  to  their  church  in  the 


H3 

City.  As  they  pass  here  all  have  lunch  bags  or 
baskets  and  also  their  shoes  on  their  arms.  Yet 
they  are  not  bare-footed,  for  they  are  all  provided 
with  wooden  shoes,  such  as  the  peasants  wear  in 
France  and  in  the  Low  Countries.  When  they  reach 
a  stream  not  far  from  the  church  where  they  have 
erected  a  shed,  they  all  stop  and  such  of  them  as 
have  other  shoes  change  them  before  going  on ; 
the  others  wash  their  feet  and  their  wooden  shoes 
and  put  them  on  again.  They  are  all  very  plainly 
dressed  but  some  of  them  are  very  elegant  looking 
persons  with  most  charming  manners.  As  they 
pass  they  are  generally  singing  some  of  their 
psalms,  that  is,  the  psalms  of  David,  translated  into 
the  French.  Some  of  the  airs  are  very  grand  and 
spirit-stirring,  but  many  of  them  are  as  sad  as 
dirges,  and  why  should  they  not  be  ?  For  surely 
this  people  have  suffered  much.  Still  they  are 
nearly  always  smiling  and  happy.  But  to  think 
of  walking  forty  miles  in  going  to  and  from  church 
every  Lord's  Day !  I  am  afraid  my  Christianity 
would  never  be  equal  to  that." 

For  many  years  the  conditions  of  life  in  New 
Rochelle,  though  not  so  bitterly  hard  as  those  of 
the  Plymouth  Pilgrims  threescore  years  earlier, 
were  very  trying  to  those  who  had  been  gently 
born  and  tenderly  nurtured  in  "  sunny  France,"  at 
that  time  the  most  advanced  country  in  the  world 
in  the  arts  and  luxuries  of  civilization.  Perhaps 
that  is  not  saying  so  very  much,  for  luxury  does 


not  always,  even  now,  include  comforts,  and  at  that 
time  scant  enough  were  what  we  now  deem  the 
most  elementary  comforts  of  life,  even  in  the 
palace  of  the  "  Sun  King  "  himself.  In  this  coun 
try  the  French  settlers,  though  originally  among 
the  poorest,  speedily  became  distinguished  by  the 
amount  of  comforts,  and  even  of  luxuries,  as  these 
were  then  esteemed,  which  they  gathered  around 
them. 

The  homes  of  the  earlier  Huguenot  settlers 
were,  if  one  may  judge  by  the  two  specimens 
which  remain  in  New  Rochelle,  neither  large  nor 
fine ;  but  they  were  substantial,  and  as  comfortable 
as  was  possible  under  the  conditions  of  the  time. 
None  in  our  country,  save  the  families  of  high 
colonial  officials,  and  a  few  of  the  very  wealthiest 
of  the  colonists,  possessed  more  of  essential  com 
forts  than  the  French  settlers  at  a  comparatively 
early  date  were  able  to  gather  around  themselves 
by  dint  of  the  industry,  skill,  and  taste  character 
istic  of  their  nation.  There  is  a  tradition  that  the 
first  to  utilize  the  remnants  of  worn-out  garments 
by  cutting  them  into  strips  and  weaving  them  into 
floor-coverings  were  the  French  refugees.  The 
rag  carpet,  as  still  sometimes  seen,  is  by  no  means 
a  thing  of  beauty,  but  in  the  days  when  the  King 
of  England  himself  did  not  always  have  a  rug  on 
which  to  rest  his  royal  bare  feet  when  stepping 
out  from  his  lofty  bed  upon  his  chill  and  pol 
ished  floor,  the  humble  rag  carpet  would  not  have 


been  esteemed  an  object  of  contempt  even  by  his 
Majesty. 

Among  the  earliest  importations  of  the  French 
settlers  were  spinning-wheels  and  looms  of  better 
quality  than  were  previously  known  here.  Im 
migrants  from  fruit-growing  and  wine-making 
districts  of  France  brought  grafts  and  roots,  and 
succeeded  in  naturalizing  most  of  the  hardier  va 
rieties.  A  few  were  able  to  import  hangings,  mir 
rors,  china,  and  furniture  of  rare  beauty;  but  in 
general  they  possessed  only  those  articles  which 
could  be  manufactured  here.  However  humble 
these  might  be  in  themselves,  they  wrouid  surely 
be  made  decorative  by  little  touches  which  only 
the  French  hand  could  give. 

Homespun  linen  yarn  of  heavy  quality  was  by 
the  Dutch  and  English  colonists  dyed  and  then 
woven  into  stripes  and  checks  of  varying  degrees 
of  ugliness  for  bed-  and  window-curtains.  The 
French  settlers  used  for  the  same  purpose  either 
purely  white  linen  of  that  which  had  but  one 
color.  The  preferred  shades  seem  to  have  been  a 
light  blue,  a  sort  of  dusky  green,  and  a  subdued 
gold-color  made  by  dyes  of  which  they  brought 
the  secret  with  them.  These  linens,  when  made 
into  hangings  bordered  by  an  embroidered  vine  or 
arabesque  design  in  white  upon  the  gold,  or  in  gold 
and  white  upon  the  blue,  or  of  varied  colors  upon 
the  all  white,  were  delicately  beautiful,  and  became 
heirlooms  in  many  a  family,  including  that  of  my 


146 


mother's  mother.  When  this  fashion  was  imitated 
by  their  Dutch  or  English  neighbors,  the  "  em- 
broiderments  "  grew  heavier,  and,  instead  of  being 
confined  to  simple  designs,  frequently  became 
perspectiveless  "  landscapes  with  figures,"  wherein 
the  yellow-faced  shepherdess,  clad  in  red  and 
green,  was  taller  than  the  stiff  blue-green  trees, 
and  her  black-and-white  sheep  were  as  tall  as 
herself. 

The  bedroom  of  my  mother's  grandmother 
L'Estrange  has  often  been  described  to  me.  The 
floor  was  painted  as  nearly  as  possible  to  match 
the  subdued  gold  of  the  linen  hangings.  The 
ceilings  and  side  walls  were  whitewashed  with 
lime.  The  windows  and  dressing-tables  were 
hung  with  tastefully  arranged  draperies,  bordered 
with  a  grape-vine  pattern  embroidered  in  white, 
and  further  trimmed  at  the  edge  with  a  knitted 
fringe  of  white  linen  yarn. 

The  tall  four-posted  bedstead  of  carved  mahog 
any  was  provided  with  a  tester,  with  long  draw- 
curtains,  over  which  valances  about  two  feet  and 
a  few  inches  deep,  and  cut  into  deep  scallops  on 
the  lower  edge,  hung  in  a  full  ruffle  from  the  cor 
nice.  Foot-curtains  and  all  were  of  the  same 
linen,  all  embroidered  and  edged  with  fringe  in 
the  same  manner.  Over  the  high  and  downy  bed 
lay  a  fringed  and  embroidered  coverlet  of  the 
same  linen,  only  that  in  this  case  the  vine  was  em 
broidered  over  the  center  part  as  well  as  the  bor- 


H7 


der.  An  immense  stuffed  chair,  running  easily  on 
wooden  globes  the  size  of  billiard-balls,"  which 
were  the  precursors  of  the  modern  caster,  had  a 
very  high  back  and  side  wings,  against  which  the 
head  might  rest.  Such  chairs  were  really  comfor 
table,  and  some  may  still  be  found.  This  one  had 
a  neatly  fitted  slip-cover  to  match  the  draperies  of 
the  room. 

The  linen  yam  for  the  draperies  of  this  room 
was  all  said  to  have  been  spun  by  the  first  Mme. 
L'Estrange  and  her  daughters,  and  it  was  afterward 
woven  under  their  direction  and  embroidered  by 
themselves.  Until  a  comparatively  late  date  there 
still  existed  other  bits  of  their  handicraft,  in  the 
shape  of  fans  of  peacock  feathers,  and  humbler 
ones  of  goose  and  turkey  feathers  —  these  last  deco 
rated  with  painted  flowers.  There  were  also  some 
hand-screens  made  by  covering  small  hoops  with 
tightly  drawn  slips  of  white  silk,  the  joinings  hid 
den  by  narrow  fringe.  One  screen  was  embroi 
dered  with  colored  silks,  others  were  daintily  painted, 
and  all  were  supplied  with  handles  of  carved  or 
smoothly  turned  and  polished  wood.  When  a 
child  I  saw  one  of  the  peacock-feather  fans  (un 
fortunately,  moth-eaten),  and  a  pair  of  the  prettily 
painted  hand-screens.  The  latter  were  used  to 
hold  between  the  face  and  the  blaze  of  the  open 
wood  fires,  which,  genial  and  delightful  as  they  are, 
have  a  disagreeable  way  of  scorching  one's  face 
and  eyes. 


H8 

Very  graceful  and  delicately  executed  embroi 
deries  upon  the  daintiest  of  muslins  are  still  shown 
which  were  made  by  members  of  this  family,  but 
possibly  by  those  of  a  later  generation.  They  are 
evidently  from  French  designs.  In  the  court  of 
Louis  XIV  lace-making  was  an  art  cultivated 
almost  as  assiduously  as  that  of  embroidery.  My 
sister  and  I  now  have  a  few  yards  of  two  patterns 
of  lace  made  by  Mme.  L'Estrange,  which  hap 
pened  to  be  trimming  some  part  of  her  under-dress 
at  the  time  of  her  escape  from  Pans.  She  taught 
the  secret  of  its  manufacture  to  her  daughters,  and 
for  three  generations  her  descendants  made  similar 
lace,  though  none  was  as  filmy  as  that  wrought  in 
the  boudoirs  of  Versailles,  because  it  was  impossi 
ble  to  get  threads  sufficiently  fine. 

The  cultivated  taste  and  the  dainty  arts  brought 
from  France  made  the  homes  of  the  Huguenots 
much  more  attractive  in  appearance  than  those  of 
other  colonists,  even  though  the  latter  might  be 
possessed  of  far  greater  wealth ;  and  the  same  dif 
ference  was  manifest  in  their  dress.  The  latter  was 
certainly  no  more  costly  than  that  of  most  of  those 
who  had  filled  similar  social  positions  in  their  re 
spective  mother-lands  ;  but  the  Frenchwoman's 
fine  eye  for  color,  and  her  delicate  skill  with  brush, 
needle,  and  bobbin,  united  to  produce  more  attrac 
tive  results.  Similar  touches  of  taste  and  skill  ap 
peared  everywhere,  and  gave  distinction  to  all  the 
Huguenot  homes,  whatever  may  have  been  the 


H9 

owner's  social  standing  in  the  mother-land.  As 
neat  as  their  Dutch  neighbors,  they  devised  labor- 
saving  methods  to  maintain  perfect  cleanliness 
without  being  slaves  to  it.  As  liberal  as  the 
English,  they  were  far  more  economical,  and  by 
their  skill  in  cooking  they  succeeded  in  rendering 
palatable  and  digestible  even  the  coarsest  fare. 
Their  skill  in  preparing  rich  dishes,  sweet  cakes, 
and  preserves  was  not  equal  to  that  of  the  Dutch 
huysvrouws,  and  they  could  not  compare  with  the 
English  in  roasts  and  pastries;  but  in  wholesome 
dishes  for  daily  consumption  they  far  exceeded 
both,  and  particularly  in  bread-making.  It  is  tra 
ditionally  related  that  the  French  were  the  first  to 
introduce  the  use  of  yeast  in  this  country,  the 
larger  part  of  all  the  colonists  at  that  time,  and 
the  Dutch  for  more  than  a  century  later,  continu 
ing  to  use  leaven. 

Perhaps  the  most  keenly  felt  of  the  material 
hardships  which  the  French  refugees  had  to  meet 
were  caused  by  our  stern  winters  and  fierce  sum 
mers,  and  the  learning  to  subsist  on  the  coarser 
meats  and  vegetables  which  formed  so  large  a  por 
tion  of  the  fare  of  the  English  and  Dutch  colo 
nists.  Very  soon,  however,  the  refugees  taught 
themselves  to  resist  or  endure  the  extremes  of  the 
climate,  and,  with  their  readiness  of  adaptation,  they 
learned  to  prepare  even  the  coarsest  foods  with  a 
culinary  skill  which  puzzled  while  it  pleased  their 
new-made  friends.  It  is  a  little  curious  to  note 


how  long  it  was  before  the  delicately  flavored 
soups,  the  light  omelets,  and  the  delicious  entrees, 
common  to  all  Huguenot  households,  came  to  be 
adopted  by  even  those  who  were  the  loudest  in 
praise  of  these  delicacies  as  made  by  the  French 
ladies.  Some  special  forms  of  buns  and  rolls  ex- 
cepted,  very  few  of  the  distinctively  French  dishes 
appear  to  have  been  used  in  families  not  of  French 
descent,  prior  to  our  Revolutionary  War. 

Notwithstanding  all  the  invincible  light-hearted- 
ness  of  his  nation,  the  lot  of  the  Pluguenot  must 
be  felt  to  have  been  sad  and  lonely.  The  Puritan 
was  an  emigrant  from  his  native  land  for  con 
science'  sake,  it  is  true,  but  his  conscience  was 
set  upon  political  as  well  as  religious  rights.  He 
came  here  of  his  own  accord,  that  he  might  have 
freedom  to  worship  God  and  govern  himself  (and 
others  !)  as  he  thought  fit.  The  Dutchman,  hav 
ing  achieved  moral  and  political  liberty  for  his 
hardly  won  and  overcrowded  dike-lands,  did  not 
feel  that  he  was  expatriating  himself  when  he  sailed 
for  the  New  Netherlands,  but  rather  that  he  was 
enlarging  the  Dutch  domains.  Even  after  he  had 
fallen  under  English  rule  he  did  not  greatly  repine. 

The  Huguenot,  on  the  contrary,  was  not  a  colo 
nist,  but  a  refugee.  In  all  the  world  there  is  not 
a  more  truly  patriotic  nation  than  the  French. 
They  love  their  people  and  their  homes,  their  cus 
toms,  and  their  country's  very  soil  with  a  passion 
ate  devotion.  The  Huguenot  was  no  exception 


1  Cl 


to  the  rule.  For  the  privilege  of  continuing  within 
the  beloved  borders  of  France  he  had  gradually 
sacrificed  his  every  political  and  almost  all  of  his 
civil  rights.  Not  until  the  only  alternatives  left 
were  the  denial  of  his  religious  faith,  death,  or 
flight,  did  he  resort  to  the  latter.  Then  he  felt 
himself,  not  a  voluntary  emigrant  from  his  native 
land,  but  an  exile,  an  outcast ;  and  his  feeling 
toward  the  government  which  had  sent  him  so 
harshly  forth  was  of  the  bitterest  description. 
This  was  shown  in  many  ways.  The  French 
Canadian,  a  voluntary  colonist,  retains  his  language 
even  to-day,  though  long  cheerfully  submissive  to 
an  alien  rule.  The  Huguenot  refugee  ceased  to 
speak  his  own  language  as  speedily  as  possible. 
My  grandmother  and  her  many  brothers  and  sisters 
were  only  the  fourth  generation  in  this  country. 
As  their  own  grandfather  had  been  left  behind  in 
France  and  educated  there,  they  might  well  be 
counted  as  the  third  generation  here.  Yet,  with  the 
exception  of  some  of  Marot's  psalms,  two  or  three 
childish  rhymes,  a  proverb  or  two,  and  a  few 
chance  expressions,  their  speech  betrayed  no  traces 
of  their  national  origin.  Though  their  great-grand 
father,  the  refugee,  taught  his  own  language  for 
several  years,  the  household  use  of  his  beautiful 
mother-tongue  was  distinctly  discouraged  by  him. 
To  the  land  of  their  adoption  the  Huguenots 
transferred  to  the  full  all  the  inborn  loyalty  of  their 
characters.  During  Great  Britain's  long  wars  with 


France —  1744  to  1763  —  the  descendants  of  the 
Huguenots,  whether  in  England  or  the  colonies, 
bore  their  part  in  continental  or  provincial  armies, 
doing  valiant  and  often  highly  distinguished  ser 
vice  in  both.  Many  of  the  best  Huguenot  families 
in  New  Rochelle  and  Rye  sent  representatives  to 
fight  the  French  and  Indians.  Among  them  were 
my  mother's  grandfather  and  his  brother.  The 
first  was  also,  when  the  time  came,  an  officer  in  our 
Revolutionary  army. 


CHAPTER   IX 

HUGUENOT   WAYS   IN   AMERICA 


CHAPTER   IX. 

HUGUENOT    WAYS  IN 
AMERICA. 


Alterations  in  Names. 
Resentment  toward  their 

Native  Land. 

Differences  between 

French    and    English 

Calvinists. 

Schools  Established  by 
the  Huguenots. 

Amusements,  and  Games 
of  Courtesy. 


i 

UN:  Y } 


and  surnames. 


[HE  utter  abandonment  by  the  ex 
patriated  Huguenots  of  all  con 
nection  with  France  is  shown  in 
nothing  more  clearly  than  in  the 
change  of  both  christened  names 
Henri  and  Pierre,  Jeanne  and  Mar 
guerite,  became  Anglicized  almost  immediately, 
and,  it  must  be  confessed,  not  to  their  betterment. 
The  spelling  of  surnames  was  apt  to  follow  the 
pronunciation  of  their  new  friends  and  neighbors. 
Even  when  the  spelling  was  retained  the  sound 
often  became  hopelessly  altered.  De  la  Vergne, 
though  retaining  the  accepted  spelling,  was  soon 
written  as  one  word,  and  pronounced  (think  of  it !) 
Dillyvarje.  Often  the  spelling  also  was  changed 
beyond  recognition.  Bonne  Passe  (Good  Thrust ; 
in  the  days  when  good  swordsmen  were  valued 
this  was  a  name  of  honor)  first  became  shortened 
to  Bon  Pas,  and  then  changed  to  Bunpas,  followed 
by  Bumpus  and  finally  contracted  to  Bump ! 
L'Estrange  was  first  known  as  Streing,  then  as 
Strange,  afterward  as  Strang,  and  even,  in  a  few 
cases,  was  changed  to  Strong. 


156 

In  writing  the  name  of  this  last-named  family  I 
have  followed  the  usage  of  at  least  some  of  its  ear 
lier  members  in  this  country,  as  well  as  a  wide 
spread  belief  among  them  all  in  its  correctness.  It 
is  a  family  tradition  that  when  the  young  Daniel 
-  afterward  the  refugee  —  was  sent  to  Switzer 
land  to  enter  the  academy  there  as  a  student  of 
philosophy,  July  29,  1672,  his  surname  was  pur 
posely  misspelled  as  Streing  to  avoid  giving  a  clue 
by  which  his  father's  persecutors  might  discover 
whither  the  son  had  been  sent ;  and  that  afterward, 
upon  the  young  student's  return  to  France,  and 
during  his  stay  there  as  a  member  of  the  Royal 
Guard,  he  had  resumed  his  rightful  name.  But 
later,  when  he  was  obliged  either  to  abandon  his 
principles  or  to  fly  for  his  life,  he  thought  it  wise 
to  again  adopt  the  name  of  Streing  for  the  sake  of 
members  of  his  family  still  residing  in  France;  for, 
as  is  well  known,  the  spies  of  Louis  XIV  were 
almost  as  active  in  London  as  in  Paris,  and  though 
the  refugees  there  could  not  themselves  be  reached 
by  the  laws  of  France,  the  tyrant's  wrath  at  their 
immunity  was  often  visited  upon  their  relatives 
still  unable  to  escape  from  his  clutches.  The 
change  of  name  was  considered  of  enough  impor 
tance  to  be  kept  up  even  in  this  country  until 
after  the  arrival  here  of  the  oldest  son,  whom  his 
heartbroken  mother,  as  before  related,  had  been 
obliged  to  abandon  at  the  gate  of  Paris.  The  son 
did  not  come  over  until  he  was  twenty-one  or 


twenty-two  years  of  age.  By  this  time  the  habit 
of  the  name  had  become  fixed.  This  son  seems  to 
have  retained  his  name  as  L'Estrange,  and  some 
of  the  others  also  used  it,  at  short  and  irregular 
periods.  Both  L'Estrange  and  Streing  appear 
to  be  names  belonging  to  the  numerous  ranks  of 
the  petty  gentry. 

Among  the  reminders  of  their  native  land  to 
which  the  refugees  clung  the  longest  was  the  ver 
sion  of  the  psalms  of  David  by  Marot — that  version 
so  hated  by  the  persecutors  that  every  copy  dis 
covered  by  them  was  immediately  treated  with  as 
much  animosity  as  was  the  Bible  itself.  Even 
after  the  descendants  of  the  refugees  had  so  far 
forgotten  their  ancestral  tongue  that  they  preferred 
to  read  the  Bible  in  English,  they  yet  sang,  to  the 
old  melodies  which  had  so  often  thrilled  their 
fathers'  souls,  the  beloved  psalms  which  were  still 
cheering  the  hearts  of  their  persecuted  brethren 
hiding  in  the  caverns  of  the  Cevennes,  where  alone 
the  remnant  remaining  in  France  could  worship  as 
conscience  dictated. 

I  would  give  much  if  I  could  now  recall  the  air 
to  which  my  mother's  mother  and  one  of  her  sisters, 
both  of  them  considerably  over  seventy  years  of 
age  at  the  time,  tremulously  sang  the  psalm  in 
which  occur  the  words  : 

"Quiconque  espere  au  Dieu  vivant, 
Jamais  ne  perira !  " 


'58 

But  both  the  air  and  the  rest  of  the  words  have 
escaped  my  recollection.  What  has  not  forsaken 
me  is  the  memory  of  two  petite  but  still  remarkably 
handsome  women,  one  of  them  very  erect,  the  other 
a  good  deal  bent,  but  both  still  vigorous  of  mind 
and  body,  as,  in  the  late  twilight  of  a  summer  Sun 
day  evening,  they  sat  together  in  a  shadowy  room 
and  crooned  the  old  sacred  song  with  a  strong  and 
faith-inspired  emphasis  on  jamais,  stopping  in  a 
startled,  half-ashamed  way  as  soon  as  they  discovered 
"  Little  Pitchers  "  trying  to  efface  herself  in  a  dark 
corner,  because  she  well  knew  that  the  entertain 
ment  would  end  as  soon  as  her  presence  should  be 
known. 

So  far  did  some  of  the  Huguenots  carry  their 
resentment  to  the  government  which  had  so  unjustly 
expelled  them  that  they  did  not  like  to  be  reminded 
of  the  land  from  which  they  came.  It  is  told  of 
one  who  lived  for  many  years  in  Charleston,  South 
Carolina,  that  while  he  never  thoroughly  mastered 
the  English  language,  he  would  speak  only  in  that 
tongue  even  within  his  own  family  circle.  He  had 
his  name  translated  into  its  English  equivalent,  and 
though  his  accent  invariably  betrayed  him  as  not 
of  American  or  English  birth,  it  was  not  definitely 
known  by  his  neighbors  that  he  was  born  in  France 
until  a  short  time  before  his  death,  when  it  became 
necessary  to  declare  his  nativity  in  order  that  he 
might  obtain  possession  of  some  property  willed  to 
him  by  a  relative  in  Burgundy. 


Probably  few  of  the  refugees  went  quite  as  far 
as  this,  but  certainly  for  many  years  their  descen 
dants,  while  rejoicing  in  the  name  of  Huguenot, 
seemed  to  resent  being  called  French.  I  remem 
ber  that  for  some  time  my  own  grandmother  (of 
the  fourth  generation  in  this  country)  opposed  her 
grandchildren's  study  of  the  French  language. 
One  day  I  said  to  her,  "  But,  grandmother,  your 
own  ancestors  were  from  France,  so  the  language 
is  partly  our  own,  and  why  should  we  not  study  it?" 

Her  large  and  brilliant  black  eyes  flashed  at  me 
over  the  tops  of  her  spectacle-bows  as  she  replied  : 
"  Yes,  they  came  from  France.  They  did  not  re 
main  there.  France  is  now  the  home  only  of  per 
secutors  and  atheists."  And  I  fear  that  she  was 
never  able  to  believe  that  any  one  who  could  not 
be  properly  classed  as  either  the  one  or  the  other 
could  continue  to  exist  in  the  country  which  had 
so  pitilessly  cast  forth  its  most  loving  children. 

This  trace  of  resentment  seems  to  have  been  the 
only  somber  characteristic  of  the  Huguenots  and 
their  descendants  in  this  country;  and  even  this 
had  its  good  side,  for  it  led  to  their  more  ready 
adoption  of  the  ideas  and  institutions  of  the  new 
land  which  welcomed  so  warmly  and  so  helpfully 
those  who  had  "  endured  hardness  "  for  the  sake  of 
their  common  faith. 

Doctrinally,  the  Huguenots  and  the  Puritans 
were  the  same.  In  practice  there  were  many  points 
of  difference.  The  Puritan  was  a  very  strict  Sab- 


i6o 


batarian,  beginning  at  sunset  of  Saturday  a  twenty- 
four  hours  of  abstinence  from  any  avoidable 
work,  as  well  as  from  any  pleasure  save  that  which 
his  devoutness  found  in  religious  services.  The 
Huguenot  Sunday  began  and  ended  as  now.  Like 
Calvin  himself,  the  refugees  did  not  think  it  essen 
tial  to  avoid  all  pleasant  things  on  Sunday  more 
than  on  other  days,  and  all  who  had  friends  living 
near  the  wayside  stopped  in  to  visit  them  as  they 
returned  from  church,  for  the  Sunday  time  that 
was  not  devoted  to  church  services  and  to  an  hour 
of  catechizing  at  home  was  not  considered  as  ill 
spent  in  cheerful  social  intercourse. 

In  Calvinistic  Switzerland  it  had  been  customary 
to  indulge  —  after  church  hours  —  in  any  form  of 
innocent  amusement.  The  Huguenots  seem  to 
have  drawn  the  line  just  short  of  this.  But  on 
week-days  their  national  light-heartedness  was 
bound  to  display  itself  in  as  many  ways  as  their 
circumstances  would  permit.  Tableaux  and  little 
comedies  were  frequent,  while  dancing  was  the 
expected  amusement  in  most  households  at  every 
evening  gathering,  and  these  took  place  as  often  as 
possible.  Children  were  instructed  with  a  degree 
of  gentleness  and  consideration  qilite  in  contrast 
with  the  sterner  ways  of  their  coreligionists  of 
English  or  even  of  Dutch  descent. 

Cheerfulness,  even  gaiety,  was  the  rule.  A 
gloomy  Huguenot  was  an  anomaly  to  be  pitied 
and  apologized  for  by  his  compeers  only  on  the 


ground  of  exceptional  misfortunes.  Yet,  when 
one  considers  the  horrible  oppressions  which  they 
and  their  ancestors  had  endured  without  relief  for 
almost  a  hundred  years  after  the  end  of  the  tem 
porary  respite  granted  by  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  one 
must  wonder  at,  while  forced  to  admire,  their 
happy  dispositions. 

The  "  boarding  and  day  schools  for  young 
ladies "  which  were  established  in  New  Rochelle 
were  eagerly  hailed  by  the  elder  English  and 
Dutch  colonists.  Hitherto  their  daughters  had 
had  few  educational  advantages.  The  sons  could 
have  private  tutors  or  attend  fairly  good  prepara 
tory  schools  which  fitted  pupils  for  the  colleges 
so  early  established  in  the  colonies ;  or  —  if  his 
parents  were  among  the  magnates  of  the  land  — 
an  especially  fortunate  youth  might  be  sent  to  one 
of  the  great  English  universities.  In  general,  the 
girls  had  to  be  content  with  the  crumbs  of  know 
ledge  which  dropped  from  their  brothers'  not  over- 
supplied  tables,  though,  in  some  rare  instances, 
governesses  were  brought  from  over  sea  for  their 
benefit.  So  when  these  French  Protestant  schools 
were  opened  by  those  who  had  enjoyed  every  then 
prized  advantage  of  social  culture,  they  were  well 
patronized  from  the  start. 

In  these  schools  were  taught  not  only  the  lan 
guage  of  the  "  politest  of  the  nations," —  to  employ 
the  words  of  Lord  Chesterfield,  written  half  a  cen 
tury  later, —  but  also  all  the  "ladylike  accomplish- 


162 


ment's"  of  the  period.  English  teachers  were 
engaged  to  instruct  in  the  grammatical  use  of  their 
own  tongue,  both  written  and  spoken;  but  it  may 
be  imagined  that  this  was  not  considered  of  nearly 
as  high  importance  as  the  more  showy  accomplish 
ments,  which  could  be  acquired  at  these  schools 
only.  Enough  of  music  to  enable  a  young  woman 
to  play  a  little  for  dancing  (although  the  fiddle  of 
some  dance-inspired  old  African  was  usually  pre 
ferred  by  the  dancers),  or  to  warble  a  few  songs  in 
her  (presumably)  fresh,  sweet  tones  to  the  accom 
paniment  of  the  probably  thready  or  wheezy 
spinet ;  enough  of  French  to  enable  her  to  read  it 
easily,  write  it  fairly  well,  and  hold  a  not  too  mono 
syllabic  conversation  in  that  language,  were  cer 
tainly  considered  as  very  desirable  accomplishments. 
A  still  more  serious  business  seems  to  have  been 
"  Instruction  in  the  Arts."  A  few  of  the  flower- 
pieces  which  were  painted  from  nature  in  water- 
colors  by  some  of  the  pupils  of  these  schools  are 
still  preserved  and  are  really  beautiful.  When  on 
a  visit  to  Nova  Scotia  some  years  ago,  I  saw  sev 
eral  which  had  been  taken  there  by  some  of  the 
Royalist  families  exiled  from  here  in  1783.  They 
bore  the  inscription,  "Eleanora  Morris,  Pension  de 
Demoiselles  de  Madame  De  la  Vergne,  La  Nouvelle 
Rochelle,  Province  de  New  York,  1736."  The 
few  still  surviving  landscapes  which  I  have  seen 
were  stiff  things  not  evincing  much  of  talent  on 
the  part  of  the  pupil,  or  skill  on  that  of  the  in- 


163 

structor.  The  embroideries,  as  might  be  expected, 
were  especially  good.  Occasionally  a  fine  piece 
of  Rochelle  tapestry  or  bed-hanging  may  yet  be 
found  in  the  possession  of  fortunate  descendants 
of  some  who  once  were  New  Rochelle  pupils,  and 
so  may  many  specimens  of  exquisite  embroideries 
on  the  most  delicate  of  muslins,  as  well  as  rem 
nants  of  laces  which  are  known  to  be  the  handi 
work  of  some  of  Mme.  De  la  Plaine's  or  Mme. 
De  la  Mater's  pupils. 

But  probably  even  more  than  all  of  these  accom 
plishments,  the  principal  thing  desired  for  their 
daughters  by  the  parents  was  instruction  in  "gentle 
manners  "  —  the  manners  not  only  of  persons  who 
were  of  gentle  birth,  but  who  also  had  been  so 
early  taught  by  precept  and  example  that  their 
graces  seem  to  have  been  born  with  them,  a  part 
of  their  very  selves.  The  pupils  were  taught  how 
to  avoid  all  awkwardness  of  movement  or  carriage; 
how  to  bear  themselves  gracefully  erect;  how  to 
enter  a  drawing-room  with  a  grave  and  gracious 
inclination,  seeming  to  include  all  who  are  present 
while  addressed  only  to  the  hostess,  and  to  leave  it 
without  turning  the  back,  as  one  retires  from  the 
presence  of  royalty;  how  to  graduate  their  greet 
ings  from  the  pleasant  deference  due  to  elders  or 
social  superiors  to  the  sweetest  condescension  to 
ward  their  juniors  or  social  inferiors;  how  first  to 
arrange,  and  afterward  how  to  preside  at,  a  hand 
somely  spread  dinner-table  with  dainty  elegance 


164 

and  efficiency;  and  also  how  to  dress  themselves 
with  taste  and  effect  in  the  fashion  of  the  day. 
Dancing  was  a  matter  of  first  importance.  The 
"  stately  steppings "  of  the  courtly  dances  of  the 
period  cost!  time,  thought,  and  much  careful  teach 
ing  on  the  one  side,  and  submissive  labor  on  the 
other,  before  any  pupil  could  be  considered  as  a 
perfected  scholar.  Incidentally  with  all  these 
things,  a  great  deal  of  valuable  instruction  was 
given  in  the  finer  graces  of  courteous  speech,  and 
all  that  gentle  consideration  for  others  which  is  at 
once  the  flower  and  the  root  of  good  breeding. 

From  the  first,  the  Huguenots,  of  whatever  de 
gree,  seemed  to  have  endeavored  to  transmit  to 
their  children  the  traditions  of  politeness  which 
they  had  brought  with  them  from  France.  For  a 
long  time  —  perhaps  even  yet  it  may  be  the  case 
in  some  families  of  this  descent  —  the  children 
were  taught  some  of  the  details  of  good  manners 
by  little  games.  These  may  have  been  invented 
in  this  country  to  supply  a  lack  of  more  regular 
instruction,  or  they  may  have  been  simply  adapta 
tions  of  similar  games  once  played  in  the  motherland. 

The  only  one  of  these  jeux  de  courtoisie  of 
which  I  have  retained  any  distinct  recollection 
conveyed  instruction  in  the  arts  of  courtesying  and 
bowing,  and  was  also  a  lesson  in  propriety.  It 
was  called  "  La  Loi  des  Baisers."  In  this  game 
only  girls  were  allowed  to  play,  One  of  them 
stood  in  the  center  of  a  room,  and  round  her  passed 


a  decorous  procession  of  little  women,  each  one 
of  whom  bowed  or  courtesied  low  before  the  gra 
cious  "  reigning  lady,"  kissing  her  extended  hand 
and  chanting : 

"  La  main  !     La  main,  Jolie  !     Petite  ! 
Pour  les  amis.     Pour  les  amis." 

To  each  the  small  lady  in  the  center  courtesied 
with  more  or  less  of  grace,  and  responded,  the 
friends  in  this  case  being  supposed  to  be  of  the 
opposite  sex : 

"  Merci,  merci ;  mes  bons  amis." 

At  the  next  round  the  "  reigning  lady  "  pre 
sented  her  brow  to  be  kissed  by  all  in  turn,  while 
the  chant  now  ran : 

"  Le  front !     Le  front !     Le  noble  front ! 
Pour  les  peres,  et  les  freres." 

To  this  the  response  was  a  lower  courtesy  and 
the  words  : 

44  Mon  cher  papa  !     Mes  freres  cheris." 

At  the  third  turn  of  the  procession  the  small 
lady  presented  both  her  hands  and  her  cheeks, 
while  the  chanted  words  were  : 

44  La  joue  !     La  joue  !     La  rougeante  joue  ! 
Pour  les  douces  sceurs,  et  les  meres." 


i66 


In  this  the  kissing  was  mutual,  and  on  both 
cheeks,  without  further  words.  At  the  fourth 
round  the  •"  reigning  lady  "  was  seated,  demurely 
placing  one  small  finger  on  her  archly  pouting  lips, 
while  the  others  passed  by,  each  with  half-averted 
face  and  one  hand  raised  as  if  prohibiting  a  nearer 
approach,  while  chanting : 

"  La  bouche  !     La  bouche,  si  ravissante  ! 
Pour  les  maris  !     Mais  seulement  les  maris  !  " 

The  rounds  generally  continued  until  each  little 
girl  had  played  the  part  of  the  reigning  lady. 

It  was  a  very  old  lady  who  taught  this  little 
game  and  its  chanted  words  to  several  of  us,  little 
girls  of  ages  varying  from  five  or  six  to  eight  or 
ten  years.  At  first  we  learned  the  words  by  rote 
only,  just  as  generations  of  children  have  learned 
"  Hickory,  dickory,  dock,"  but  later  on  we  grew 
to  know  the  meaning,  whether  by  the  interpreta 
tion  of  older  girls  or  not  I  do  not  now  remember. 

If  any  living  descendants  of  Huguenots  in 
America  retain  traces  of  others  of  these  jeux  de 
courtoisie,  they  should  not  fail  to  see  that  such 
traces  are  recorded.  Too  precious  to  be  allowed 
to  fade  entirely  away  are  these  faint  remains  of  the 
efforts  made  by  the  Huguenots  to  retain  for  their 
children,  in  the  midst  of  the  wilderness  which  had 
welcomed  them,  the  graces  and  proprieties  which 
had  been  birthrights  in  their  old  homes. 


CHAPTER  X 

A   COLONIAL   WEDDING 


CHAPTER  X. 

A    COLONIAL  WEDDING. 


Gallup  and  Chesebrough. 

Rev.  William  Worthing- 

ton  of  Saybrook,  Con 

necticut. 

Wedding  Customs. 

Quality  and  Commonalty. 

The  Uninvited  Guests. 

A  Valiant  Supper. 


|HE  year  was  1726.  The  bride 
groom  was  the  Rev.  William 
Worthington,  then  pastor  of  the 
church  at  Saybrook,  Connecticut. 
The  bride  was  a  former  parishioner 
in  the  town  of  Stonington,  Connecticut,  by  name 
Temperance,  daughter  of  William  Gallup  and  his 
wife  Sarah  (Chesebrough),  and  granddaughter  of 
Captain  John  Gallup  and  his  wife  Hannah  (Lake), 
of  whose  "pioneer  home"  we  have  already  read. 
As  known  to  all  readers  of  colonial  history,  this 
Captain  John  Gallup,  the  second  of  his  name,  had 
been  a  man  of  much  influence  with  the  Mohegans, 
or  friendly  Indians,  many  of  whom  had  followed 
his  leadership  in  the  Great  Swamp  Fight  of  1675, 
in  which  he  bravely  fell  at  the  head  of  his  com 
pany.  To  his  son,  William  Gallup,  the  Mohe 
gans  had  transferred  the  allegiance  they  had  given 
his  father,  and,  in  his  turn,  he  continued  to  exercise 
over  and  for  them  the  same  sort  of  fatherly  guar 
dianship  which  they  had  received  from  Captain 
Gallup.  A  knowledge  of  this  fact  is  essential 
to  the  comprehension  of  an  incident  of  the  wed 
ding  of  Mr.  William  Gallup's  daughter. 

169 


LIB 

_>K   TH) 

UNIVER 


This  family  was  among  the  most  prominent  and 
highly  connected  in  what  is  now  known  as  New 
London  County,  Connecticut,  and  in  the  theocrati- 
cal  regime  of  New  England  the  minister  always 
held  the  first  rank  by  right  of  his  office,  as  well  as 
by  the  gentle  birth  and  breeding  which  were 
usually  his.  For  both  reasons  all  the  neighbor 
ing  "  people  of  quality "  were  naturally  among 
the  invited  guests.  The  pastor,  being  in  spirit 
as  well  as  in  name  the  father  of  his  flock,  could 
not  allow  any  member  of  his  late  parish  to  be 
overlooked,  though  it  probably  embraced  every 
soul  in  the  township.  To  be  both  just  and  gener 
ous  to  all,  it  was  decided  to  make  a  wedding-feast 
of  two  days'  duration,  and  invite  the  guests  in 
relays,  "  according  to  age,  list  and  quality,"  in  the 
same  way  that  sittings  were  then  assigned  in  many, 
if  not  all,  of  the  "  meeting-houses  "  of  New  Eng 
land. 

The  first  day  of  the  feast  was  that  on  which  the 
marriage  ceremony  was  performed  by  the  bride 
groom's  personal  friend,  the  Rev.  Ebenezer  Rossi- 
ter,  and  not  by  a  civil  magistrate,  as  was  the 
early  custom  in  all  the  Puritan  colonies.  It  is 
almost  certain  that  there  was  no  wedding-ring. 
Even  as  late  as  half  a  century  ago  these  were 
rarely  used  by  descendants  of  the  Puritans. 
There  were  present  on  this  day  only  the  relatives 
and  intimate  friends  of  the  contracting  parties.  As 
the  bridegroom  was  a  minister,  no  doubt  all  the 


neighboring  clergy,  and  as  many  of  their  families 
as  could  come,  were  numbered  among  the  friends 
on  this  day.  So,  also,  were  several  of  the  highest 
colonial  dignitaries,  as  appears  by  the  time-stained 
chronicle,  written  nearly  fifty  years  later,  from  the 
relations  of  her  grandmother,  the  bride  of  that  day, 
by  Juliana  Smith,  a  granddaughter  of  the  Rev.  and 
Mrs.  William  Worthington. 
,  For  the  first  day's  feast  long  tables  were  spread 
with  much  profusion,  and  with  what  to  modern 
eyes  would  seem  like  confusion  as  well.  Soups 
were  then  rarely,  if  ever,  served  on  occasions  of 
ceremony,  and  all  meats,  fish,  side-dishes,  and  vege 
tables  were  placed  on  the  table  at  the  same  time, 
and  served  without  change  of  plates.  It  was  con. 
sidered  an  "  innovation  "  at  this  wedding-dinner 
that  "  coffee,  pies,  puddings  and  sweetmeats 
formed  a  second  course." 

The  guests  were  seated  with  great  regard  to  pre 
cedence.  Probably  there  were  not  many  chairs, 
for  even  in  England  "  settles  and  forms "  con 
tinued  to  be  more  commonly  used  than  chairs  in 
the  best  country  houses  at  least  as  late  as  1750. 
Such  as  there  were  —  and  probably  every  good 
neighbor  contributed  such  as  he  possessed  for  this 
occasion  —  were  carefully  reserved  for  "the  most 
infirm  and  the  greatest  dignitaries." 

"  Immediately  after  the  asking  of  the  blessing 
by  the  oldest  minister  present,  tankards  filled  with 
spiced  hard  cider  were  passed  from  hand  to  hand 


JZ1 

down  the  table,  each  person  filling  his  own  mug 
or  tumbler."  A  punch-bowl  is  not  mentioned  in 
this  chronicle  as  having  formed  a  part  of  the  table 
furniture,  and  as  it  is  expressly  mentioned  that  the 
drinks  were  poured  from  the  tankards  into  mugs 
or  tumblers,  it  is  probable  that  the  custom,  men 
tioned  by  Mrs.  Earle  in  her  "  Customs  of  Colonial 
Life,"  of  passing  the  punch-bowl  from  hand  to 
hand  for  each  person  to  drink  from,  had  already 
become  obsolete;  indeed,  it  is  not  certain  that 
such  a  custom  was  ever  habitual  among  the  bet 
ter  sort  of  colonists.  .Tankards  were  undoubt 
edly  so  passed,  not  only  here  but  in  the  rural 
districts  of  England,  as  late  as  "  in  the  days  of 
good  Queen  Anne." 

A  very  few  of  the  tankards  and  mugs  at  this  wed 
ding  may  have  been  of  silver  or  of  glass,  and  still 
fewer  of  delft  or  of  china,  but  where  there  were  so 
many  the  greater  part  must  have  been  of  pewter, 
horn,  or  wood.  Of  these  articles,  as  well  of  the 
chairs,  it  is  likely  that  all  the  well-to-do  neighbors 
contributed  the  best  of  such  as  they  possessed,  this 
generous  sort  of  neighborliness  being  a  character 
istic  of  the  time  and  of  all  new  settlements.  Arti 
cles  of  silver  were  not  as  plentiful  in  New  England 
as  in  the  other  colonies,  but  by  this  date  nearly  all 
families  of  distinction  possessed  a  few,  and  in  spite 
of  the  natural  losses  by  fire  and  other  calamities, 
there  are  still  existing  some  relics  which  orna 
mented  this  long-ago  wedding-dinner. 


*73 

A  curious  dish,  which  may  possibly,  even  proba 
bly,  have  been  used  on  that  day,  is  still  in  posses 
sion  of  a  member  of  the  family  connection,  a  de 
scendant  of  the  Chesebroughs.  This  dish  is  here 
described  in  the  hope  that  some  one  may  be  able 
to  determine  what  use  it  was  originally  intended  to 
serve.  It  is  circular,  about  nine  or  ten  inches  in 
diameter,  perhaps  three  inches  deep,  standing  upon 
a  circular  base ;  it  would  hold  from  three  to  four 
pints  of  liquid,  and  has  a  cover.  So  far  there  is 
nothing  to  distinguish  this  piece  of  very  ancient 
red,  yellow,  and  blue  delft  from  many  another 
which  we  would  not  hesitate  to  call  a  vegetable-dish. 
But,  perched  against  one  side  of  its  interior,  like  a 
swallow's  nest  under  the  eaves,  is  a  pocket-like 
thing  that  would  hold  three  or  four  tablespoonfuls 
of  liquid  were  it  not  perforated  like  the  strainers 
of  tea-pots.  It  has  been  stated  —  on  what  author 
ity  I  know  not  —  that  when  tea  was  first  brought 
to  Holland  it  was  served  as  a  soup.  Is  it  possible 
that  this  queer  old  side-pocketed  dish  was  made 
for  the  infusion  and  serving  of  the  new  herb? 

If  there  were  not  enough  dishes  of  the  better 
sort  to  accommodate  all  the  guests  entitled  to 
them,  preference  was  always,  at  such  entertain 
ments,  given  to  the  older  persons  present.  The 
juniors  would  be  served  on  this  first  day,  as  all 
would  be  on  the  next  day,  with  dishes  of  brightly 
polished  pewter,  or  in  trenchers  of  maple,  tulip,  or 
poplar  wood,  scoured  to  an  almost  snowy  whiteness. 


There  would  be  few  spoons  of  silver,  but  many 
made  of  pewter  or  horn ;  no  silver  forks,  and 
perhaps  not  an  oversupply  of  steel  ones.  Among 
the  relics  in  the  old  house  at  Sharon  are  still  pre 
served  half  a  dozen  specimens  of  an  implement 
which  preceded  forks  —  sharply  pointed  bits  of 
steel,  about  four  inches  long  by  an  eighth  of  an 
inch  in  diameter,  set  into  handles  of  bone.  When 
I  first  found  them  and  took  them  to  my  grand 
mother  with  a  "  What  are  these  ?  "  she  laughingly 
told  me  to  "  guess."  I  thought  they  looked  more 
like  ice-picks  than  anything  else,  but  she  assured 
me  that  they  were  the  precursors  of  forks.  They 
must  have  performed  their  office  but  "  indifferent 
well,"  though,  as  an  improvement  upon  fingers, 
some  of  them  may  likely  enough  have  been  used 
on  this  occasion. 

Some  of  the  pewter  dishes  now  cherished  by  the 
descendants  of  those  who,  as  relatives  or  friends, 
were  present  at  this  wedding,  are  marked  with 
the  owner's  initials  as  carefully  as  if  they  were  of 
silver.  Indeed,  a  full  set  of  pewter  tableware  was 
considered  a  fine  wedding-gift  from  a  father  to  his 
daughter.  A  pewter  porringer,  belonging  to  the 
family  which  owns  the  dish  of  ancient  delft  men 
tioned  above,  is  a  really  pretty  thing,  graceful  in 
shape  and  having  a  fancifully  cut  flat  handle  pro 
jecting  from  its  side.  It  is  recorded  that  in  Queen 
Elizabeth's  time  cocoanut-shells  were  used  as 
drinking-cups,  being  polished,  and  set  sometimes 


in  silver,  and  sometimes  in  pewter.  In  the  colo 
nies  polished  cocoanut-shells  were  also  occasion 
ally  used  as  ladles,  having  long  handles  of  polished 
wood  attached  to  them.  At  least  one  such  ladle 
still  exists.  It  has  a  prettily  fashioned  handle  of 
maple  wood.  Its  exact  age  is  not  known,  but  it 
or  its  counterpart  might  well  have  been  used  at 
this  wedding-feast. 

On  the  first  day  of  the  feast,  besides  the  prelim 
inary  draught  of  spiced  cider,  there  was  brandy  for 
those  who  craved  it,  and  much  good  Burgundy 
and  Madeira  for  the  more  temperately  inclined. 
Three  casks  of  Madeira  (size  not  mentioned)  are 
recorded  as  having  been  broached  on  that  day. 

On  the  second  day  the  "commonalty"  began  to 
assemble  at  about  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning. 
(The  "  quality "  on  the  previous  day  had  waited 
until  eleven.)  The  tables  were  served  to  succes 
sive  guests  during  the  day.  Foreseeing  the  de 
mand,  all  the  good  housewives  in  the  vicinity, 
with  their  servants,  had  been  assisting  Mrs.  Gallup 
and  her  servants  in  the  preparations,  and  afterward, 
with  neighborly  cooperation,  they  assisted  in  the 
serving  of  the  stores  of  good  things. 

On  the  first  day,  "  after  the  removal  of  the  sub 
stantial  part  of  the  meal,  the  ladies  left  the  table, 
the  table  cloths  were  removed,  and  various  strong 
waters,  together  with  pipes  and  tobacco,  were 
brought  on,  in  company  with  trays  filled  high  with 
broken  blocks  of  nut-sweet."  This  last  was  a  highly 


prized  candy  made  from  maple  sugar  made  soft 
with  water,  placed  in  a  shallow  iron  pan  over  the 
coals,  with  a  liberal  allowance  of  unsalted  butter, 
and  slightly  scorched.  While  scorching,  the 
blanched  meats  of  hickory-nuts  and  butternuts, 
or  sometimes  almonds  when  this  foreign  dainty 
could  be  procured,  were  added  with  a  liberal  hand. 
When  cooled  this  became  firm,  and  was  esteemed 
"  equal  to  anything  in  England." 

On  the  second  day  this  regular  order  of  things, 
with  the  customary  toast-drinking,  was  manifestly 
impossible.  "As  each  relay  of  guests  left  the 
tables  they  passed  out  of  the  front  door  near  which 
stood  an  immense  Bowl,  long  ago  hollowed  out  by 
painstaking  Indians  from  a  bowlder,  for  the  grind 
ing  of  their  corn.  This  was  filled  with  Punch 
which  was  ladled  out  freely  to  all  who  presented 
anything  from  which  to  drink  it,  while  great  piles 
of  powdered  Tobacco  and  a  good  bed  of  coals  to 
furnish  light,  were  free  to  all  who  had  pipes." 
This  punch,  whatever  liquor  might  have  furnished 
its  body,  was  sure  to  have  been  well  seasoned  with 
the  best  of  West  Indian  sugar  and  lemons,  for 
there  was  already  a  brisk  trade  between  the  Con 
necticut  coast  and  the  West  Indies,  and  at  this 
time  of  the  year  the  trading-vessels  would  have 
been  coming  into  the  home  ports. 

This  unique  punch-bowl  held  many  gallons,  and 
it  speaks  well  both  for  the  temperance  of  the 
guests  and  the  good  quality  of  the  liquor  provided, 


that  "no  one  became  boisterous,  though  the  big 
Bowl  was  kept  well  and  strongly  replenished  dur 
ing  the  entire  three  days  of  this  wedding  feast." 
For  three  days  there  were,  though  only  two  have 
yet  been  mentioned  here. 

Early — very  early  —  on  the  morning  of  the 
second  day,  almost  before  the  active  men-  and 
women-servants  had  opened  their  eyes  upon  the 
heavy  day's  work  before  them,  a  motley  but 
grave  and  decorous  procession  of  apparently  in 
terminable  length  was  seen  coming  over  the  hill 
on  the  side  of  which,  "  overlooking  the  little 
Mystic  River,  stood  the  large  and,  for  its  time, 
the  imposing  mansion  of  Mr.  Gallup." 

For  a  moment  the  master  stood  in  blank  dis 
may.  The  descendants  of  the  friendly  Mohegans 
and  a  remnant  of  their  Pequod  enemies,  so  nearly 
annihilated  half  a  century  before,  were  small  in 
number  when  compared  with  their  former  strength, 
but  they  were  still  formidable  as  wedding-guests. 
They  had  heard  that  all  the  country-side  had  been 
invited  to  partake  of  Mr.  Gallup's  hospitality,  and 
perhaps  had  imagined  that  such  an  invitation  must 
include  themselves.  Such  a  conclusion  would 
have  been  natural  enough,  "  considering  that  he 
had  always  taken  them,  in  a  rhanner,  under  his  pro 
tection,  and  they  had  always  turned  to  him  for  ad 
vice  and  often  for  efficient  help  in  time  of  need." 
Or  it  may  have  been  that  some  practical  joker  had 
been  at  the  pains  to  convey  this  impression,  or,  as 


178 

Mrs.  Gallup's  great-granddaughter  opined,  that 
"  some  slighted  suitor  had  thought  thus  to  cause 
annoyance  to  the  bride."  Whatever  might  have 
been  the  cause,  the  remnants  of  the  tribes  had 
come  in  all  the  security  of  invited  and  welcome 
guests — brave,  squaw,  and  papoose. 

With  the  prompt  decision  which  characterizes 
most  successful  men,  Mr.  Gallup  sprang  upon  the 
stone  horse-block  and  proceeded  to  make  an  im 
promptu  speech,  "  in  the  picturesque  style  in  which 
he  was  an  adept,  and  with  which  an  Indian  audi 
tory  was  always  pleased.  He  assured  'his  chil 
dren  '  that  they  were  welcome,  very  welcome ;  but 
that  they  had  mistaken  the  day  for  which  they  had 
been  invited;  that  their  day  was  the  morrow,  and 
that  then  he  should  set  before  them  the  best  that 
could  be  had,  a  feast  that  should  be  worthy  of  them 
and  of  his  friendship  for  them."  In  the  slang  of 
our  own  day,  this  contract  was  a  large  one,  for  the 
resources  of  the  neighborhood  had  been  already 
heavily  drawn  upon,  and  the  line  of  the  morrow's 
guests  "  as  they  wound  their  way  back  to  their 
wigwams  in  open  Indian  file,  as  their  native  man 
ner  was,  extended  from  the  Gallup  house  well  on 
to  the  head  of  the  river,  a  mile  or  so  away  from 
it." 

On  the  following  day  the  dignified  but  hungry 
host  came  back  again,  "  beplutned  and  blanketed 
in  their  best,  and  none  went  hungry  or  thirsty 
away." 


For  various  good  reasons,  including  the  natural 
objections  of  a  dainty  housewife,  this  multitude 
was  served  out  of  doors,  where  immense  iron  ket 
tles  of  clam  and  of  fish  chowders  had  been  started 
to  cook,  over  carefully  tended  fires,  long  before  day 
light.  In  other  kettles  numbers  of  the  wild  ducks, 
which  at  that  season  had  begun  to  be  plentiful 
along  the  coast,  were  slowly  stewing  with  onions. 
"  Three  young  hogs,  of  about  one  hundred  weight 
each,  were  roasted  whole,  also  out  of  doors.  Hang 
ing  from  the  cranes  in  the  great  fire-places  in  the 
house  were  boiling  big  bags  of  Indian  meal  pud 
dings,  thickly  studded  with  dried  plums."  To  be 
served  with  the  puddings  were  pailfuls  of  a  sauce 
made  from  West  India  molasses,  butter,  and  vin 
egar.  Great  baskets  were  filled  with  potatoes  that 
had  been  roasted  in  the  ashes,  and  other  baskets 
were  piled  with  well-baked  loaves  of  rye  and  Indian 
bread.  All  of  these  were  dainties  which  the  cop- 
per-hued  guests  could  duly  appreciate,  especially 
with  the  addition  of  barrelfuls  of  hard  cider  and  as 
much  West  Indian  rum  as  it  was  deemed  wise  to 
set  before  them. 

These  particulars  are  all  mentioned  in  the  little 
diary  from  which  I  have  culled  so  much,  but,  with 
the  exception  of  the  few  things  previously  quoted, 
it  says  nothing  about  the  viands  that  were  served 
on  the  preceding  days.  By  this  period  the  colo 
nists  had  acquired  the  art  of  cooking  to  the  best  ad 
vantage  most  of  the  dishes  which  were  peculiar  to 


i8o 


the  country,  and  the  wealthy  among  them  had  also 
a  good  many  imported  dainties. 

No  amusements  in  which  women  took  part,  save 
possibly  as  spectators,  are  mentioned,  but  we  are 
told  that  the  young  men  engaged  in  "rastling, 
quoits,  running,  leaping,  archery  and  firing  at  a 
mark,  but  on  the  last  day  no  muskets  were  allowed 
by  reason  of  the  Indians."  Probably  the  women 
were  all  too  much  engaged  in  hospitable  cares  to 
indulge  in  any  of  the  diversions  considered  suitable 
for  them. 

No  wedding-journey  followed  the  simple  cere 
mony.  On  the  afternoon  of  the  first  day  many  of 
the  invited  guests  —  probably  all  of  them  on  horse 
back,  save  a  few  who  may  have  followed  on  foot 
for  a  mile  or  so,  for  apparently  there  were  no  car 
riages  then  in  that  region — escorted  the  newly  wed 
ded  pair,  the  bride  riding  on  a  pillion  behind  her 
husband,  to  his  house,  the  parsonage  of  the  West 
Parish  of  Saybrook,  Connecticut.  Any  further 
feasting  might,  even  after  a  ride  of  twenty-five 
miles  or  more,  have  seemed  superfluous,  but  a 
"  valiant  supper  had  been  spread  "  by  the  care  of 
Mr.  Worthington's  parishioners,  wishing  to  extend 
a  hearty  welcome  to  his  bride  and  the  friends  who 
had  accompanied  her,  and  all  "were  plentifully 
regaled  with  cold  meats,  roast  and  stewed  oysters, 
cakes,  comfits,  chocolate  and  coffee." 

"  After  the  supper  a  hymn  was  sung  by  all,  fol 
lowed  by  a  prayer  and  benediction.  .  .  .  After 


which,"  adds  the  young  chronicler,  "the  friends 
all  departed  "  (probably  to  the  homes  of  Saybrook 
friends  hospitably  opened  to  receive  them),  "  and 
my  Grandfather  and  Grandmother,  left  alone  to 
gether  in  their  new  Home,  knelt  down  and  prayed 
together  for  God's  blessing." 


CHAPTER   XI 

LIFE  ON  AN  EARLY  COLONIAL  MANOR 


CHAPTER  XL 

LIFE    ON     AN     EARLY 
COLONIAL  MANOR. 


Terms  of  Grant. 
The    First    Lady    of  the 

Livingston  Manor. 
Extent  of  the  Manor. 


o    QoC    o  °QoC>o  o 
ooo 


holder  of  an  American  manor 
in  colonial  days,  though  of  the 
highest  social  rank,  was  by  no 
means  an  idle  aristocrat  living  on 
an  immense  estate  paying  a  pro 
portionate  revenue.  In  fact,  if  one  of  the  wealthi 
est,  he  was  also  one  of  the  busiest  men  of  his 
generation.  Both  the  conditions  of  the  times  and 
those  upon  which  the  manors  were  conferred  made 
this  a  necessity.  The  manor  granted  to  Robert 
Livingston  in  1686  was  almost,  if  not  quite,  as 
large  as  some  of  the  German  principalities  of  those 
days,  and  its  possession  implied  a  certain  amount 
of  extraneous  wealth  on  the  part  of  its  owner  to 
enable  him  to  sustain  his  manorial  authority  with 
the  fitting  degree  of  power  and  prestige  ;  but  it 
was  no  sinecure. 

Mr.  Livingston's  great  domain,  situated  in  what 
are  now  Columbia  and  Dutchess  counties,  New 
York,  fronting  for  twelve  miles  along  the  Hud 
son  River,  and  enlarging  to  the  length  of  twenty 
miles  on  the  Massachusetts  border,  thirty  miles  or 
so  back  from  the  river,  was  still,  for  the  most  part, 

185 


i86 


a  wilderness  where  Indians  hunted  the  deer,  or 
sometimes  fired  the  hut  and  took  the  scalp  of  a 
too  adventurous  pioneer. 

Robert  Livingston  was  a  far-seeing,  politic  man. 
As  much  as  might  be,  he  made  friends  of  the  wild 
tribes,  paying  them  fairly  for  their  lands,  without 
regard  to  the  fact  that  the  royal  grants  were  sup 
posed  to  preclude  any  such  necessity,  and  himself 
learning,  and  causing  his  sons  to  learn,  the  Indian 
tongues,  that  they  might  be  delivered  from  the 
misunderstandings  which  were  so  frequent  when 
the  several  parties  to  any  agreement  were  depen- 
cjent  upon  the  not  always  certain  loyalty  of  the 
interpreters. 

Nothing  in  North  America  was  then  so  plenti 
ful  as  land,  and  under  the  conditions  imposed  by 
the  royal  grants  a  poor  man  could  not  have  af 
forded  to  accept  a  gift  of  the  lordliest  manor  of 
them  all.  Within  a  specified  time  a  certain  num 
ber  of  families  had  to  be  brought  from  Europe  and 
settled  upon  the  granted  territory,  and  their  main 
tenance  for  the  first  few  years  assured.  It  is  true 
that  the  settlers  thus  brought  were  expected  to 
pay  back  at  least  a  part  of  the  first  expenditure, 
but  for  the  time  the  outlays  were  heavy,  and  com 
paratively  few  of  the  settlers  made  the  losses 
good. 

Farms  were  leased  for  long  terms,  usually  for 
two  lives  and  a  half,  a  period  which  at  that  time 
was  said  to  have  averaged  about  fifty  years. 


In  his  novel  of  "  Satanstoe,"  one  of  the  most  re 
liable  of  historical  tales,  Cooper  says :  "  The  first 
ten  years  no  rent  at  all  was  to  be  paid ;  for  the 
next  ten  the  land  [five  hundred  acres]  was  to  pay 
sixpence  currency  per  acre,  the  tenant  having  the 
right  to  cut  timber  at  pleasure ;  for  the  remainder 
of  the  lease  sixpence  sterling  was  to  be  paid  for 
the  land  and  ^40  currency  or  about  $100  per 
year  for  the  mill  site.  The  mills  to  be  taken  by 
the  landlord,  at  4  an  appraisal  made  by  men,'  at 
the  expiration  of  the  lease  ;  the  tenant  to  pay  taxes." 
The  mill  was  evidently  to  be  built  by  the  tenant, 
"  who  had  the  privilege  of  using,  for  his  dams, 
buildings,  etc.,  all  the  materials  that  he  could  find 
on  the  land."  To  the  landlords  belonged  the  duty 
of  constructing  roads  and  bridges,  and  of  making 
all  improvements  of  a  public  nature.  The  rents 
were  usually  if  not  always  paid  in  the  produce  of 
the  land,  which  the  manor's  lord  was  obliged  to  get 
to  market  at  his  own  expense  in  order  to  obtain 
the  necessary  cash  for  his  varied  undertakings. 
Such  an  arrangement  would  certainly  seem  to  have 
been  very  liberal  toward  the  tenant,  and  was  doubt 
less  so  esteemed  at  the  time,  but  in  after  years, 
when  the  descendants  of  the  first  tenants  had  for 
gotten  the  heavy  advances  which  had  been  made 
by  the  ancestors  of  their  landlords,  and  saw  how 
easily  the  more  recent  settlers  could  make  homes 
for  themselves  in  the  West,  they  considered  them 
selves  unjustly  treated,  and  instituted  the  struggle 


i88 


for  possession  which  is  known  to  history  as  the 
"  anti-rent  war." 

Of  course,  nothing  of  all  this  was  foreseen  at  the 
beginning.  The  first  manor  lords  undoubtedly 
thought  that  they  were  here  founding  immense 
holdings  after  the  fashions  of  the  motherland,  and 
they  proceeded  in  a  thoroughly  businesslike  way 
to  make  all  things  secure  for  the  prosperity  of 
their  heirs,  who,  when  their  time  came,  did  not  fail 
to  appreciate  what  had  been  done  for  them. 

Governor  William  Livingston  of  New  Jersey, 
writing  to  his  brother,  the  third  lord  of  the  Up 
per  Manor,  in  1775,  remarked:  "  Without  a  large 
personal  estate  and  their  own  uncommon  industry 
and  capacity  for  business,  instead  of  making  out 
of  their  extended  tract  of  land  a  fortune  for  their 
descendants,  our  grand-parents  and  parents  would 
have  left  us  but  a  scant  maintenance." 

In  this  expression  Governor  Livingston  seems 
to  have  included  the  manor  ladies  as  well  as  their 
lords,  and  indeed  it  is  plain  that  the  very  desirable 
"  capacity  for  business "  was  equally  needed  by 
both,  and  the  "  hand  of  the  diligent  that  maketh 
rich "  is  not  an  exclusively  masculine  possession. 

The  first  lady  of  the  manor  of  Livingston  was 
Alida,  the  daughter  of  Philip  Pieterse  Schuyler, 
and  widow  of  the  Rev.  Nicholas  Van  Rensselaer. 
Whatever  dower  in  money  or  lands  she  may  have 
brought  to  the  aid  of  her  astute  second  husband, 
she  surely  brought  one  still  better  in  the  sturdy 


Dutch  qualities  of  fidelity,  thrift,  and  management. 
For  warmth  and  strength  of  family  affection,  both 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Robert  Livingston  were  long  remem 
bered  among  their  descendants.  Mrs.  Livingston 
had  come  honestly  by  her  executive  and  adminis 
trative  ability.  Her  father  had  been  a  man  of 
much  influence  in  the  colony,  and  her  mother,  nee 
Van  Slichtenhorst,  survived  her  husband  for  twenty- 
eight  years,  so  managing  his  large  estate,  over 
which  she  had  full  control,  as  to  be  reckoned  the 
foremost  woman  in  a  colony  which  numbered  many 
women  of  proved  business  ability. 

The  year  of  this  marriage,  1683,  was  that  in 
which  young  Robert  Livingston  made  his  first  pur 
chase  of  land  from  the  Indians  —  a  tract  of  two 
thousand  acres.  Two  years  later  more  land  was 
added  by  purchase,  and  still  one  year  later  came 
the  grant  from  the  crown,  when  the  whole  was 
erected  into  a  lordship  or  manor,  conferring  the 
"  Court-Leet,"  "  Court-Baron,"  and  other  rights  and 
privileges  which  were  for  a  long  time  more  visible 
on  the  parchments  than  elsewhere. 

On  this  estate  of  more  than  one  hundred  and 
sixty  thousand  acres,1  on  the  banks  of  a  small  but 
for  a  short  distance  navigable  tributary  of  the  Hud 
son,  was  erected  the  first  Livingston  manor-house. 
Its  last  vestige  disappeared  more  than  a  hundred 

1  Charles  Carroll  of  Carrollton,  writing  in  1776,  says  that  the  Livingston 
Manor  then  comprised  over  300,000  acres.  This  must  have  included  almost 
150,000  acres  which  had  been  gradually  added  by  purchase  to  the  original 
manorial  grant. 


years  ago,  when  the  present  family  residence,  known 
as  Oak  Hill,  was  built,  a  mile  or  more  from  the 
ancient  site. 

Of  the  first  house  we  only  know  that  it  was 
"  thick  walled,  low  browed  and  heavy  raftered,"  af 
ter  the  then  prevailing  Dutch  farm-house  type,  only 
much  larger  than  was  usual.  We  do  not  know 
that  it  was  constructed  in  any  way  for  defense,  al 
though  it  well  might  have  been.  Probably  its 
builder  trusted  to  keep  the  peace  by  his  just  and 
friendly  dealings  with  the  Indians,  and  he  may  also 
have  been  prepared  for  defense.  He  certainly  had 
good  reason  to  trust  somewhat  to  the  number  of 
retainers  gathered  around  him,  a  majority  of  whom, 
like  all  frontiersmen,  would  pretty  surely  be  well 
armed  against  "big  game,"  which  would  as  surely 
include  aggressively  inclined  Indians,  if  any  there 
were;  but  this  does  not  appear.  From  the  rear 
of  the  broad-roofed  dwelling  stretched  away  the 
quarters  of  the  slaves,  the  other  outbuildings,  and 
several  barns,  some  of  which  were  larger  than  the 
house  itself. 

There  was  much  building  of  houses  at  various 
suitable  points  for  the  use  of  the  tenant  farmers 
and  craftsmen  brought  from  Great  Britain,  Hol 
land,  and  Germany.  To  supply  the  timber  for 
these  dwellings  sawmill  machinery  was  imported 
and  set  up  on  the  banks  of  the  streams  in  the 
midst  of  the  forests.  Near  these  mills  little  settle 
ments  grew  up  with  a  celerity  that  was  remarkable 
for  the  time,  and  spoke  volumes  for  the  executive 


and  administrative  ability  of  the  manor's  active 
lord.  In  a  long,  semi-detached  wing  of  the  manor- 
house  carpenters  and  masons  were  fed  and  lodged 
during  the  long  winters,  while  they  did  such  pre 
paratory  work  as  might  be  possible  to  forward 
building  operations  in  the  various  settlements  in 
such  moments  as  the  weather  would  permit.  With 
the  adaptability  of  all  true  pioneers,  these  men 
could  turn  their  hands  to  many  things,  and  they 
manufactured  in  the  manor's  workshop  and  smithy 
many  of  the  tools  which  otherwise  must  have  been 
imported,  as  well  as  much  of  the  rude  furniture  for 
the  pioneer  houses.  Near  by  was  the  grist-mill 
which  supplied  flour  and  Indian  meal  to  all  the 
near  settlements,  as  well  as  to  many  outside  the 
manor  for  perhaps  thirty  miles  up  and  down  the 
river.  On  the  home  farm  hundreds  of  swine  and 
beef  cattle  were  raised,  slaughtered,  and  cured  to 
supply  scores  of  resident  families  and  also  for  ex 
portation.  Here  the  wool  of  many  hundreds  of 
sheep  was  sheared,  carded,  spun  into  yarn,  and 
woven  into  blankets  and  cloths  to  be  used  for  the 
manor  household  and  by  those  of  the  tenants  not 
sufficiently  "  forehanded "  to  do  this  work  for 
themselves. 

In  one  room  of  the  "  great  house  "  were  held 
courts  where  all  the  difficulties  common  to  fron 
tier  populations  were  adjusted,  and  in  the  same 
room  were  carried  on  the  primitive  banking  opera 
tions  of  the  newly  opened  region. 

Near  by  were  the    docks,    whence,    when    the 


river  was  open,  sloops  were  weekly  departing, 
laden  with  salted  meats,  grains,  peltries,  and  lum 
ber,  or  returning  with  cargoes  of  all  the  countless 
things  which  could  not  yet  be  produced  at  home. 
Among  these  were  many  articles  of  luxury  and 
rich  household  furnishings  which  must  have 
seemed  a  trifle  incongruous  with  their  new  sur 
roundings. 

Not  far  away  stood  the  big  "store,"  where  all 
sorts  of  things,  from  wrought-iron  nails  to  silks, 
and  from  "  West  Indian  sweetmeats  "  to  Dutch 
garden  seeds,  were  sometimes  sold  for  money,  but 
oftener  bartered  for  country  produce  and  peltries, 
which  would  soon  find  their  way  to  New  York, 
and  some  ultimately  to  England,  in  ships  owned 
by  the  enterprising  Robert  Livingston. 

All  these  various  branches  of  business  implied 
the  coming  and  going  of  many  persons,  and  en 
tailed  an  open-handed  hospitality  of  the  widest 
kind.  For  this  the  principal  care  and  oversight 
fell  upon  the  capable  shoulders  of  Mrs.  Livingston. 
It  is  traditionally  related  that  the  number  of  per 
manent  dwellers  which  the  manor-house  roof  shel 
tered  during  the  first  twenty  years  of  the  eighteenth 
century  averaged  something  over  thirty  persons  — 
this  being  exclusive  of  slaves,  of  whom  there  were 
more  than  a  hundred  having  outside  quarters,  and 
of  white  employees.  As  strangers  were  always 
welcome,  it  was  the  custom  to  have  beds  of  all  sorts 
in  a  state  of  complete  readiness  for  at  least  ten 


*93 

unexpected  guests,  while,  at  a  pinch,  a  good  many 
more  could  be  accommodated  without  great  in 
convenience. 

Among  the  dwellers  in  the  manor-house  was 
always  the  dominie,  who,  before  the  erection  of 
the  manor  church  in  1721,  held  services  every 
winter  Sunday  in  the  great  kitchen  and  adjoining 
dining-room,  and  in  summer  on  the  threshing-floor 
of  the  biggest  bam.  On  each  Sunday  he  preached 
one  sermon  in  Dutch  and  another  in  English,  and 
during  the  week  he  acted  as  tutor  for  Mr.  Living 
ston's  children  and  young  relatives,  as  well  as  exer 
cised  a  pastoral  care  over  the  members  of  his 
congregation.  Other  inmates  were  several  more 
or  less  distant  relatives  of  both  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Liv 
ingston,  all  of  whom  were  probably  expected  to 
make  themselves  more  or  less  useful  in  one  way 
or  another,  for  very  few  drones  could  have  been 
tolerated  in  such  an  industrious  hive. 

Robert  Livingston  was  a  man  of  unusual  culti 
vation  for  his  time.  It  is  said  that  he  was  a  good 
classical  scholar,  and  there  is  proof  that  he  spoke 
and  wrote  the  English,  French,  and  Dutch  lan 
guages  with  fluency  and  clearness.  Both  he  and 
his  wife  had  bright,  quick,  active  minds,  "were 
witty  and  wise,"  and  both  were  possessed  of 
much  personal  grace  and  charm,  so  that  their 
house  was  regarded  as  a  delightful  home  where 
all  other  attractions  were  added  to  the  grace  of 
hospitality. 


194 

The  first  manor  of  Livingston,  with  its  many 
activities,  its  profuse  hospitalities,  and  its  strong 
contrasts,  reminds  one  of  Scott's  descriptions  of 
the  rude  baronial  halls  in  the  remote  Scotch  dis 
tricts  a  few  scores  of  years  earlier  than  this.  In 
the  new  land  there  was  almost  as  much  feudal 
authority  over  more  diverse  retainers,  a  greater 
display  of  costly  plate,  tapestries,  and  rich  furni 
ture,  and  the  same  lack  of  what  were  even  then 
considered  essential  comforts  for*  persons  of  like 
social  position  in  regions  less  remote. 

The  wide  hall  and  the  long  drawing-room  of  the 
big  farm-house  were  wainscoted  in  panels.  The 
mantels  above  the  tile-bordered  fireplaces  were  fan 
cifully  carved,  and  the  walls  were  hung  with  costly 
Flemish  tapestries;  yet  it  is  doubtful  if,  during 
the  first  three  or  four  decades,  any  of  the  floors 
were  carpeted,  while  that  of  the  dining-room  was 
certainly  sanded,  and  a  row  of  sheepskins,  dressed 
with  the  wool  on,  was  laid  around  the  table  in 
winter  for  foot-warmers.  At  the  same  time  the 
table  was  laid  with  the  finest  naperies  and  much 
solid  silver,  interspersed  with  pewter  and  wooden 
dishes.  During  the  earliest  years  there  probably 
was  not  a  single  fork,  and  it  is  almost  certain 
that  there  were  few  if  any  articles  of  china,  and  not 
many  of  earthenware.  A  dozen  silver  porringers 
bearing  the  original  crest  of  the  Livingstons,  show 
ing  that  they  had  been  brought  from  Scotland  by 
the  first  Robert,  and  a  dozen  goblets,  or  tumblers, 


195 

I  am  not  sure  which,  bearing  the  same  mark,  were 
inherited  as  their  share  of  the  original  plate,  which 
was  divided  by  weight,  by  two  of  my  grandmother's 
brothers,  who  were  descendants  of  the  fifth  genera 
tion,  and  who,  it  is  grievous  to  know,  had  them 
melted  "to  make  handsomer  but  certainly  less 
precious  articles.  As  these  persons  were  but  two 
of  the  scores  of  Robert  Livingston's  descendants 
among  whom  his  plate  had  been  successively 
divided,  some  idea  may  be  formed  of  its  first 
amount. 

The  life  led  by  Lady  Alida  Livingston  in 
her  wilderness  manor-house  was  busy,  bustling, 
dominant.  Her  household  was  kept  well  in  hand, 
and  so  were  her  husband's  business  operations ;  not 
merely  when  he  was  present  to  guide  them  with 
his  own  masterful  hands,  but  also  during  his  long 
absence  at  his  place  in  the  colonial  councils,  or  on 
his  several  journeys  to  England.  Mrs.  Livingston's 
family  of  six  sons  and  daughters  received  every  at 
tainable  advantage  both  in  learning  and  accom 
plishments.  Both  she  and  her  husband  felt  their 
responsibility  as  the  founders  of  a  family  destined 
to  honor  and  power.  They  gazed  far  into  the 
future  and  builded  wisely,  yet  they  did  not  dream 
of  a  result  to  which  their  labors  were  tending. 

Their  descendants  of  the  third  and  fourth  gener 
ation,  then  grown  to  be  a  large,  wealthy,  keen-wit 
ted,  and  "  clannish  clan,"  were,  with  very  few  ex 
ceptions,  found  among  the  strongest  opponents  to 


196 

British  power  during  the  struggle  of  the  colonies 
for  independence,  though  well  knowing  that  with 
their  success  would  perish  all  dreams  of  the  new- 
world  baronies.  The  course  of  the  three  great 
manor  families  of  Van  Rensselaer,  Van  Cortlandt, 
and  Livingston  is  alone  a  sufficient  answer  to  the 
calumny  that  "great  estates  always  made  active 
Tories." 


CHAPTER  XII 

PROSPEROUS   DAYS   ON   A   LATER   MANOR 


PROSPEROUS  DAYS  ON  A 
LATER  MANOR. 


Increase  of  the  Clan  in 
Numbers  and  Wealth. 

Education. 

Margaret  Beeckman 

Livingston,  Last  Lady  of 

the  Manor  of  Clermont. 


|HE  period  from  the  founding  of  the 
first  manor  in  the  colony  of  New 
York  to  the  beginning  of  the  War 
of  the  Revolution  was  not  quite  a 
century,  yet  during  the  last  third 
of  that  time  home  life  on  all  the  manors  had 
greatly  changed.  What  in  the  later  time  was  held 
to  be  vast  wealth  had  resulted  from  the  wise  plans 
and  incessant  labors  of  the  founders,  acting  with 
the  natural  growth  of  the  country.  To  such  pleas 
ant  features  as  had  existed  in  the  earlier  days  many 
others  had  been  added,  while  much  of  that  which 
was  unpleasant  had  disappeared.  For  miles  along 
the  eastern  bank  of  the  Hudson,  above  and  below 
what  is  now  Rhinebeck,  almost  every  sightly 
eminence  was  capped  with  the  fine  residence  of 
one  of  the  grandchildren  of  the  first  lord  and  lady 
of  the  Livingston  Manor.  At  all  of  these  man 
sions  cordial  hospitality,  abundant  cheer,  and  all 
of  what  was  then  esteemed  splendor,  were  to  be 
found.  There  were  at  this  time  two  Livingston 
manors,  as  a  portion  of  the  first  (which  was  subse 
quently  called  the  Upper  Manor)  had  been  set  off 

199 


200 


to  the  founder's  third  son  Robert  as  a  reward  for 
peculiarly  important  services.  This  segregated 
portion  was  indifferently  called  the  "  Lower  Manor 
of  Livingston "  or  "  Clermont "  until  after  the 
colonies  had  become  States,  when  it  became 
definitely  known  as  Clermont,  one  of  the  most 
celebrated  country-seats  in  America. 

The  manor  ladies  of  the  third  generation  and 
their  successors  of  the  fourth  (though  the  title  of 
these  last  had  become  one  of  couAesy  only)  were 
well-nigh  queens  on  their  own  domains ;  but,  like 
all  queens  who  are  not  mere  figureheads,  they  had 
many  cares,  which  they  accepted  as  frankly  as  they 
did  the  pleasures  of  their  position. 

Notions  of  political  independence  had  for  many 
years  been  growing  through  all  the  colonies,  but 
of  social  equality  there  was  scarcely  a  whisper. 
Certainly  it  was  far  from  the  thoughts  of  those  who 
had  belonged  to  good  families  in  the  old  countries 
and  had  here  been  held  in  honor  and  had  pros 
pered  to  the  extent  of  founding  families  of  wealth. 
Perhaps  no  more  frankly  fervent  aristocrats  ever 
lived  than  the  owners  of  the  great  colonial  estates, 
whether  these  were  situated  on  the  banks  of  the 
James  and  the  Chesapeake  or  on  those  of  the  Hud 
son.  They  were  free  from  most  of  the  restraints 
and  traditions  which  often  hung  like  fetters  on  the 
limbs  of  the  kindred  class  in  the  motherland,  and 
thus  they  were  at  liberty  to  enjoy  their  rank, 
wealth,  and  cultivation  with  an  almost  childish 


201 


naivete.  Of  this  happy  liberty  they  took  the  fullest 
advantage. 

From  the  extreme  limits  of  Van  Rensselaer's 
manor  on  the  north  to  that  of  the  Van  Cortlandts 
on  the  south,  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Hudson  River 
from  Albany  to  New  York,  and  for  a  distance  of 
from  fifteen  to  thirty  miles  back  from  the  river,  was 
dotted  by  the  handsome  residences  of  as  care-free, 
healthful,  fine-looking,  and  happy  a  class  as  prob 
ably  the  society  of  any  country  has  ever  known. 
Its  members  were  not  driven  by  the  fierce  compe 
tition  which  embitters  so  many  lives  to-day,  yet 
they  had  abundant  and  satisfying  occupations. 
They  had  intermarried  so  freely  that  they  seemed 
one  great  cousinry,  all  having  a  serene  confidence 
in  the  invulnerability  of  their  social  position,  which 
left  them  free  to  be  jovial,  hospitable,  good-hu 
mored,  and  withal  public-spirited  to  an  unusual  de 
gree.  The  men  had  their  offices,  and  their  business 
hours  in  which  to  confer  with  their  stewards  and 
tenants,  or  with  the  men  who  conducted  large  en 
terprises  of  many  sorts  upon  the  strength  of  their 
capital  and  under  their  guidance.  Into  their  ca 
pable  and  willing  hands  official  positions  naturally 
fell  and  were  faithfully  filled ;  but  all  these  things 
were  done  in  an  atmosphere  of  large  leisureliness, 
consequent  upon  the  slow  means  of  communica 
tion  between  distant  points,  which  is  almost  beyond 
the  conception  of  any  in  these  electric  days. 

The  men  rode  a  great  deal,  or  hunted  after  the 


202 


manner  of  their  English  cousins,  or  they  made 
long  expeditions  into  the  unexplored  regions  of 
northern  and  western  New  York,  partly,  no  doubt, 
with  an  eye  to  present  profit  or  to  future  invest 
ments,  but  largely  to  gratify  their  innate  love  of 
adventure.  Many  of  the  sons  were  sent  to  the 
English  universities  of  Cambridge  or  Oxford ;  but 
even  if  his  college  training  had  been  received  at 
King's  (now  Columbia)  College,  the  education  of 
no  young  man  belonging  to  a  wealthy  and  cul 
tivated  family  was  considered  complete  until  he 
had  made  a  tour  of  Europe,  from  one  to  three 
years  being  frequently  consumed  in  this  way. 

Probably  owing  to  the  many  dangers  and  the 
very  serious  discomforts  which  then  beset  an  ocean 
voyage  under  the  most  favorable  conditions,  the 
sisters  seldom  accompanied  their  brothers,  though 
there  are  a  few  known  instances  of  daughters  who 
went  to  England  with  their  fathers,  and  there  and 
in  Scotland  were  most  hospitably  entertained  by 
their  more  or  less  distant  but  ever  "  kindly  kin." 
I  have  had  the  pleasure  of  reading  some  remark 
ably  vivacious  and  charming  letters  from  one  such 
fortunate  maiden,  as  they  were  copied  by  my  rela 
tive,  Mr.  Livingston  Rutherfurd,  into  his  valuable 
but  privately  printed  volume  concerning  the 
Rutherfurd  family  in  America. 

During  the  long  absences  of  the  male  heads  of 
the  manor  families  the  administration  of  their 
home  affairs  was  left  in  the  hands  of  capable  stew- 


203 

ards,  who  were  always  under  the  supervision  of  the 
manor  ladies  Margaret  Beeckman,  the  wife  of 
Judge  Livingston,  second  (and  last)  lord  of  the 
Lower  Manor,  was  the  mother  of  Chancellor  Liv 
ingston  and  of  nine  other  goodly  sons  and  daugh 
ters,  most  of  whom  eventually  became  distin 
guished  persons.  She  displayed  remarkable  ability 
not  only  in  fulfilling  the  duties  of  her  high  position 
during  the  lifetime  of  her  husband,  and  in  the 
management  of  his  great  estate  after  his  decease, 
but  also  in  the  wise  upbringing  of  her  large  family. 
An  account-book  kept  in  her  own  hand,  with 
copious  notes  relating  to  crops  and  stock  on  her 
many  farms,  and  to 'contracts  with  dealers  in  lum 
ber,  wools,  and  furs,  as  well  as  to  the  more  inti 
mate  matters  of  household  economy,  shows  a  mind 
of  much  more  than  common  business  ability  and 
breadth  of  view.  The  household  supplies  of  every 
sort  were  on  a  scale  commensurate  with  the  family's 
social  position,  and  would  in  themselves  make  most 
interesting  reading  for  one  who  loves  to  make  the 
past  seem  present  by  recalling  the  homely  details 
of  domestic  life. 

All  the  manor  families  had  always  encouraged 
what  were  then  "  home  industries "  in  a  strictly 
literal  sense.  But  there  were  many  things  which 
the  largest  private  expenditure  could  not  produce 
in  the  new  country,  and  Mrs.  Livingston's  old  ac 
count-book  shows  that  persons  of  wealth  did  not, 
for  this  reason,  deprive  themselves  of  much  which 


204 

they  desired  to  possess.  The  things  sent  for  from 
England,  France,  and  Holland  were  varied,  nu 
merous,  and  costly.  Great  treasures  of  tapestries, 
pictures,  inlaid  cabinets, jewels,  satins,  velvets,  and 
laces,  as  well  as  old  wines,  delicate  porcelains, 
and  expensive  plate,  must  have  been  lost  when 
the  Clermont  manor-house  was  burned  by  the 
British  during  our  Revolutionary  War.  Among 
the  imported  articles  were  "  An  eboney  Cabinet 
garnished  out  with  Silver,"  which  cost  ,£40,  and 
another  of  "  Tortus  Shell,  garnished  with  Silver 
Guilte,"  costing  £b$  15^.  "  Two  setts  of  bed  cur- 
tayns  broidered,  lined  &  fringed,"  were  ^40  each. 
"  Thirty  six  yards  of  Broussells  carpett  with  bor 
der,"  ^36.  These  prices  probably  covered  freight 
charges  as  well  as  the  original  cost.  All  of  these 
were  great  treasures  for  their  day,  and  many  such 
had  been  imported  by  Judge  and  Mrs.  Livingston  ; 
but  they  exist  no  longer,  save  on  the  yellow  but 
strong  paper  and  in  the  good  black  ink  of  the 
leather-covered  account-book  kept  for  many  years 
by  Mrs.  Margaret  B.  Livingston. 


CHAPTER   XIII 

A   COUNTRY   PARSON'S  WIFE 


CHAPTER  XIII. 
> 

A  COUNTRY  PARSON'S 
WIFE. 


Lake,  Gallup,  Chcse- 

brough,  and  Worthington  ; 

Elliott,    Chauncey,   Hop 

kins,  Ely,  and  Goodrich. 

The   Parsonage   and  its 

Furnishings. 
Fire   and  Flint. 


|HE  roots  of  a  strong  character  draw 
their  nutriment  from  far  beneath  the 
surface ;  therefore  it  is  less  amiss 
than  it  might  seem  that  we  begin 
the  simple  story  of  this  country 
pastor's  wife  by  referring  to  that  of  another  woman, 
who  preceded  her  by  more  than  a  century. 

During  the  twenty-five  years  which  intervened 
between  the  landing  at  Plymouth  and  the  battle  of 
Naseby,  New  England  had  become  the  place  of 
refuge  for  many  of  those  to  whom  the  mother 
land  had  ceased  to  be  home  save  in  fond  remem 
brance.  Among  these  self-exiled  were  many  who 
fled  from  the  choice  which  they  must  make,  if  they 
remained  in  England,  between  their  faith  on  the 
one  hand  and  an  inborn  and  inbred  loyalty  to  their 
king  on  the  other. 

Of  these  was  one  Mrs.  Margaret  Lake,  who  is 
mentioned  in  our  chapter  on  "  A  Pioneer  Home." 
She  was  one  of  the  original  grantees  of  the  town 
ship  of  New  London,  Connecticut,  "sharing  in  all 
the  grants  and  divisions  of  land  made  to  the  other 
settlers."  Beyond  this  fact,  and  that  she  was  a  sis- 

207 


208 


ter  of  the  second  Governor  Winthrop's  second 
wife,  little  more  than  is  told  in  that  chapter  is 
known  concerning  her.  The  father  of  Mrs.  Win- 
throp  and  Mrs.  Lake  belonged  to  that  class  which 
has  ever  furnished  the  backbone  of  old  England 
-the  frequently  gentle  born  though  often  far 
from  wealthy  class  of  hereditary  landowners,  living 
at  a  distance  from  courts  and  fashions,  but  availing 
themselves  of  the  best  educational  advantages 
afforded  in  their  time.  Many  of  this  class  fought 
and  died  for  the  worthless  Stuarts,  and  to  it  also 
belonged  the  most  upright  and  humane  portion  of 
Cromwell's  ever-valiant  forces. 

The  years  from  1645  onward  to  1675,  the  date  of 
the  battle  with  the  Pequots  known  as  the  Great 
Swamp  Fight,  were  full  of  danger  to  the  New 
England  colonists.  Whatever  their  tender-hearted 
descendants  may  think  about  the  matter  in  these 
days  of  security,  there  is  no  doubt  that  to  our  an 
cestors  the  Indian  was  a  continual  menace  and  ter 
ror,  and  no  man  gained  more  of  the  admiration  of 
his  fellows  than  he  who  best  held  in  check  this 
formidable  foe.  Among  such  defenders  none  in 
what  is  now  known  as  New  London  County,  Con 
necticut,  was  held  to  be  stronger  of  arm  and  more 
dauntless  of  soul  than  Captain  John  Gallup,  the 
son  of  a  father  equally  renowned  in  the  same  line. 
The  first  Captain  John  Gallup  was  a  grandson 
of  Thomas  Gallup,  owner  of  the  manors  of  North 
Bo  wood  and  Strode  in  Dorsetshire,  England. 


209 

Being  a  younger  son  of  a  younger  son,  the  emi 
grating  Gallup  may  reasonably  be  supposed  not  to 
have  possessed  an  unduly  large  share  of  this  world's 
gear,  but  it  is  certain  that  he  speedily  became  a 
man  of  some  substance  and  much  value  in  the 
colonies.  His  son,  the  second  Captain  Gallup, 
married  Hannah,  daughter  of  Mrs.  Margaret  Lake, 
thus  bringing  together  the  gentle  and  the  warlike, 
and  from  their  union  sprang  a  race  many  of  whose 
descendants  have  made  their  mark  by  council-fires 
and  on  the  tented  field,  passing  from  one  to  the 
other  as  the  needs  of  their  country  required,  but 
flinching  from  no  difficulty  or  danger  when  fol 
lowing  what  appeared  to  them  to  be  their  duty. 

William  Gallup,  a  son  of  the  second  John  Gal 
lup  and  Hannah  Lake,  married  Sarah,  a  daughter 
of  Samuel  and  granddaughter  of  William  Chese- 
brough  of  Stonington,  Connecticut.  The  last- 
named  came  from  England  in  1630  in  Winthrop's 
fleet.  Of  Mr.  Chesebrough  it  has  been  written  that 
"  he  could  frame  a  building  or  he  could  sit  as 
judge  in  a  case  at  law.  He  could  forge  a  chain 
or  draw  up  a  plan  for  the  organization  of  the 
municipal  government.  He  could  survey  a  tract  of 
land  or  he  could  represent  his  town  in  the  General 
Court  and  adjust  its  disturbed  relations  with  the 
constituted  [colonial]  authorities."  This  shows 
him  to  have  been  a  typical  Yankee  of  the  best 
sort  —  a  man  who  could  successfully  turn  his 
capable  hands  and  brains  to  any  useful  thing. 


210 


It  is  said  that  Mr.  William  Chesebrough  was  a 
man  of  strong  religious  convictions,  and  certainly 
he  must  have  enjoyed  religious  services,  for  it  is 
recorded  that  in  bad  seasons,  when  the  necessarily 
ill-made  roads  of  the  time  were  rendered  more  than 
usually  impassable  by  heavy  freshets  and  oozing 
frosts,  he  had  been  "  known  to  start  for  church  at 
a  little  after  midnight  in  order  to  accomplish  in 
good  time  the  fifteen  miles  that  lay  between  his 
home  and  the  meeting  house."  It  required  both 
strength  of  muscle  and  conviction  to  render  the  best 
of  men  so  zealous  as  that.  But,  with  all  his  zeal, 
Mr.  Chesebrough  had  a  fund  of  humor  which 
made  his  genial  society  sought  by  young  and  old 
until  his  death  in  1667,  while  his  "judicious  mild 
ness  smoothed  many  public  and  private  difficulties 
in  the  region  where  he  was,  in  two  senses,  the  first 
settler." 

It  is  this  Mr.  Chesebrough's  granddaughter, 
Temperance  Gallup,  whose  marriage  to  the  Rev. 
William  Worthington  is  related  in  our  account 
of"  A  Colonial  Wedding,"  and  it  was  one  of  the 
daughters  of  this  couple  who,  in  1756  or  1757, 
became  the  wife  of  the  Rev.  Cotton  Mather  Smith 
of  Sharon,  Connecticut. 

The  Rev.  William  Worthington  was  the  first 
settled  pastor  of  the  West  Parish  of  Saybrook,  Con 
necticut,  where  he  died  in  1756.  Family  tra 
ditions,  coming  down  through  several  lines  of 
descendants,  unite  in  ascribing  to  him  "great 


211 


blandness,  urbanity  and  grace  of  manner  com 
bined  with  a  keen  and  trenchant  wit."  He  was 
considered  a  learned  man  in  his  day,  and  as  a 
preacher  "  was  distinguished  for  using  the  persua 
sions  of  the  Gospel  rather  than  the  terrors  of  the 
law."  Mr.  Worthington  left  five  daughters  and 
one  son  —  also  William  Worthington,  a  colonel 
of  patriotic  troops  during  the  Revolutionary  War, 
who  died  a  bachelor.  The  youngest  daughter 
married  Dr.  Aaron  Elliott,  son  of  the  Rev.  Jared 
Elliott  of  Killingworth,  now  Clinton,  Connecticut. 
Another  married  Colonel  John  Ely  of  Lyme,  Con 
necticut,  whose  noble  record  of  high  patriotism  is 
but  too  little  known.  A  third  daughter  married 
Elnathan  Chauncey.  A  fourth  daughter  married 
Mr.  William  Hopkins.  All  of  the  sons-in-law  of 
the  Rev.  William  Worthington  were  prominent 
men  in  their  several  places  of  residence,  and  from 
all  of  them  have  descended  many  persons  of  social 
and  intellectual  distinction.  It  was  the  second 
daughter,  Temperance,  who  became  the  wife  of  the 
Rev.  Cotton  Mather  Smith  of  Sharon,  Connecticut. 
All  of  the  sisters  bore  a  contemporary  reputa 
tion  of  being  more  accomplished  than  most  of  the 
women  of  their  time.  Their  father,  being  in  ad 
vance  of  his  age  in  considering  that  girls  had  as 
much  brain  and  as  much  use  for  it  as  boys,  had 
given  to  his  daughters  every  attainable  advantage. 
Comparatively  few  of  the  pastors  of  Parson  Wor- 
thington's  generation  paid  visits  to  Europe,  but 


212 


Mrs.  Smith  and  one  of  her  sisters  in  their  girl 
hood  accompanied  their  father  on  a  visit  which  he 
made  to  England.  In  the  diary  of  Juliana  Smith 
we  find  this  "  long  and  arduous  "journey  referred 
to  several  times,  but  with  an  exasperating  brevity 
and  incompleteness,  as  : 

"  When  Mamma  was  with  Grandfather  Wor- 
thington  in  Boston,  England,  she  heard  a  great 
Organ  the  tones  of  which  rolled  like  the  Ocean, 
and  the  whole  soul  melted  to  its  music." 

And  again,  writing  in  1 779  : 

"  When  my  Mother  and  Aunt  were  in  England, 
thirty  years  ago,  they  were  hospitably  entertained 
at  the  country  seats  of  some  of  my  Grandfather's 
relatives  there,  and  now  we  are  told  that  one  of 
them,  who  was  an  officer  of  the  King's  troops,  and 
was  an  Ensign  then,  is  now  a  Major,  and  is  sick 
and  a  Prisoner  in  the  hands  of  the  Continentals. 
My  Father  will  use  every  effort  to  have  him  brought 
to  us,  and  then  it  is  possible  we  may  secure  an  ex 
change  for  my  Uncle  Ely,  who  holds  the  same  rank 
in  our  army,  and  is  now  a  Prisoner  in  the  hands 
of  the  British  in  New  York." 

This  exchange,  so  much  desired,  was  not  effected, 
the  doctor  being  found  too  useful  as  a  physician 
among  the  sick  prisoners  confined  in  the  "Old  Sugar 


213 

House."  It  was  nearly  or  quite  at  the  close  of  the 
war  when  Dr.  Ely,  much  broken  in  health,  but  not 
in  spirit,  was  restored  to  his  family. 

Mr.  S.  G.  Goodrich  (Peter  Parley),  who  was  the 
grandson  of  Mrs.  Chauncey,  says  that  Mrs.  Smith 
and  her  sisters  were  all  "  noted  for  their  wide  read 
ing,  their  elegant  manners,  and  their  excellent 
house-wifery."  The  last  two  accomplishments  may 
be  taken  without  qualification,  but  in  regard  to  the 
first  claim  it  is  necessary  to  make  allowance  for 
the  conditions  and  times.  Mr.  Worthington's 
daughters  certainly  read  Shakspere  and  Milton, 
for  odd  volumes  of  both  of  these  classics  still  exist 
bearing  the  name  of  "  Temperance  Worthington, 
from  her  Father,"  written  on  fly-leaves.  Both  bear 
evidence  of  having  been  well  read,  though  care 
fully  used.  (Books  were  far  too  costly  and  rare  to 
be  treated  slightingly.)  It  is  said  that  all  of  Mr. 
Worthington's  daughters  were  good  Latin  scholars, 
and  it  is  certain  that  at  least  one  of  them,  Mrs. 
Smith,  was  a  fairly  good  French  scholar,  speaking 
the  language  sufficiently  well  to  act  as  interpreter 
when  occasion  required,  as  it  sometimes  did  when 
the  French  troops  were  here  during  our  Revolu 
tionary  War.  The  same  useful  office  was  filled  by 
one  of  her  sisters,  Mrs.  Ely,  I  think,  at  Newport, 
Rhode  Island.  Mrs.  Smith  taught  the  language 
of  our  allies  to  her  own  sons  and  daughters,  giving 
them  such  an  interest  in  it  that  at  least  two  of  them 
continued  to  read  French  and  translate  it  with  ease, 


even  in  their  latest  years.  Where  Mrs.  Smith  ac 
quired  her  knowledge  of  the  French  tongue  I  do 
not  know.  It  was  a  most  unusual  accomplishment 
in  the  New  England  of  her  time,  and  may  have 
been  gained  in  one  of  the  Huguenot  schools  in  New 
Rochelle.  There  is  no  proof  that  she  attended 
one  of  these,  but  several  circumstances  seem  to 
point  that  way;  among  them  is  the  existence  of 
some  delicate  specimens,  made  by  "Madame  Smith" 
and  her  daughters,  of  such  needlework  as  was  then 
universally  known  as  "  French  embroidery." 

The  house  to  which  Mrs.  Smith  came  as  a  bride, 
in  1756  or  1757,  was  built  a  few  years  before  that 
date  by  her  husband's  predecessor,  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Searle.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  this  dwelling  was 
still  in  an  admirable  state  of  preservation,  it  was 
taken  down  in  1812  by  my  grandfather,  who  re 
placed  it  by  a  house  of  the  then  fashionable 
Grecian  temple  style  of  architecture. 

The  old  house,  as  described  to  me,  was  large  and 
heavily  timbered,  with  its  sides  covered  with  over 
lapping  cedar  shingles.  In  front  the  hipped  roof 
began  to  rise  from  a  little  above  the  ceiling  of  the 
first  story,  but  sloped  so  little  that  the  house  was 
practically  two  stories  high  on  that  side.  At  the 
rear  the  roof  slowly  receded  from  the  ridge-pole  to 
the  long  stoep  which  ran  from  north  to  south 
across  the  back  of  the  low-ceiled,  many-windowed, 
wide  and  comfortable  old  manse.  On  the  first 
floor  four  large  rooms  were  grouped  round  the 


215 

central  chimney,  against  which,  and  directly  op 
posite  to  the  outer  door,  was  a  square  hall  from 
which  a  flight  of  stairs  broken  by  a  platform  ran  to 
the  second  story.  In  accordance  with  the  general 
usage  of  the  time,  this  outer  door  was  divided  into 
upper  and  lower  halves.  It  opened  upon  a  stone 
porch,  provided  with  seats  on  the  sides,  and  cov 
ered  with  an  overhanging  shingled  roof  unsup 
ported  by  pillars.  At  the  time  that  my  grand 
father  remembered  it  a  portion  of  the  stoep  at  the 
rear  had  been  inclosed  to  afford  accommodations 
for  a  summer  kitchen,  for  washing  clothes,  and 
a  milk-room.  At  right  angles  with  the  house, 
stretching  eastward,  there  ran  out  from  one  corner 
the  immense  woodshed,  rendered  necessary  by  the 
incessantly  devouring  open  fires ;  and  near  the  east 
ern  extremity  of  the  shed  were  disposed  the  other 
outbuildings.  This  was  a  great  improvement  upon 
the  common  village  usage  of  colonial  days,  which 
was  to  cluster  the  woodshed  and  some  of  the 
smaller  outbuildings  around  the  front  door. 

The  village  green,  which  is  now  so  beautifully 
elm-embowered,  could  then  have  been  but  a  wide 
and  unkempt  common,  a  pasture-ground  where 
scattered  trees,  the  scant  remains  of  ancient  growths, 
afforded  shade  to  sheep,  cows,  calves,  geese,  and 
sometimes  even  to  swine. 

Directly  in  front  of  the  parsonage,  shading  its 
porch,  there  stood  an  immense  white-ash  tree,  be 
lieved  to  have  been  the  largest  of  its  kind  in  New 


2l6 


England,  under  whose  giant  branches  the  Wequag- 
nock  Indians  had  often  built  their  council-fires. 
This  glorious  tree  lived  and  apparently  flourished 
until  a  great  gale  in  August,  1893.  My  grand- 
father,  William  Mather  Smith  (who  was  born  in 
1786),  said  that  within  his  recollection  this  tree 
had  never  increased  in  apparent  size.  From  the 
front  door  to  the  gate,  passing  by  and  under  the 
great  ash,  was  a  short  and  irregularly  flagged  walk, 
edged  with  box. 

That  one  of  the  four  principal  rooms  on  the  first 
floor  which  opened  by  four  large  windows  to  the 
west  and  south  was  occupied  by  the  parson,  both 
as  his  study  and  as  the  class-room  for  his  pupils. 
There  were  then  no  theological  seminaries,  and 
the  young  men  who  wished  to  be  fitted  for  the 
ministry  studied  with  such  pastors  as  were  held  in 
the  highest  estimation  for  learning  and  ability. 
About  the  time  of  the  Revolutionary  War  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Bellamy  of  Bethlehem,  and  the  Rev.  Cot 
ton  Mather  Smith  of  Sharon,  seem  to  have  divided 
between  themselves  the  greater  number  of  divinity 
students  of  western  Connecticut. 

The  parsonage  furnishings  would  not  strike  the 
modem  eye  as  either  abundant  or  very  comforta 
ble,  yet  there  were  comparatively  few  dwellings 
of  the  day  so  well  supplied.  The  dark  mahogany 
desk  at  which  the  Rev.  C.  M.  Smith  wrote  hun 
dreds  of  the  sermons  preached  during  his  fifty-two 
years'  pastorate  in  Sharon  is  now  in  possession  of 


217 

/' 

his  great-great-grandson.  Some  of  the  fine  old 
chairs  and  a  sofa  of  the  same  unrivaled  wood,  the 
latter  handsomely  carved,  but  of  severe  outlines 
and  unapproachable  discomfort,  are  in  the  same 
ownership.  An  inlaid  sideboard  of  mahogany 
and  satinwood,  which  adorned  the  parsonage  liv 
ing-room,  and  which  had  belonged  to  the  parson's 
father,  is  now  owned  by  a  great-great-granddaugh 
ter.  These,  with  some  small  round  mahogany 
stands  for  candles,  an  ebony-framed  mirror,  and  a 
few  other  of  the  choice  things  which  once  stood  in 
the  parsonage,  are  all  that  now  remain  of  its  fur 
nishings,  save  the  portraits  of  King  George  III 
and  Queen  Charlotte.  About  these  the  only  re 
markable  thing  is  that  they  exist  at  all,  for  they  are 
on  glass,  and  could  not  have  survived  save  by  dint 
of  great  care;  and  who  could  or  would  have  be 
stowed  this  care  immediately  after  the  War  of  the 
Revolution  ?  The  parson  and  his  wife  were  both 
very  strong  patriots,  but  it  would  seem  that  there 
might  have  lingered  some  feeling  of  personal  loy 
alty  to  the  old  sovereigns,  which,  through  it  all, 
preserved  their  frail  presentments  with  faithful 
care. 

One  of  the  comparatively  few  imported  carpets 
at  that  time  in  the  country  lay  on  the  parson's 
study  floor.  The  living-room,  across  the  hall  from 
the  study,  and  communicating  with  the  kitchen 
behind  it,  had  a  carpet  of  heavy  homespun  woolen 
yarn,  woven  in  a  pattern  of  broad,  lengthwise 


218 


stripes.  Such  carpets  had  two  merits :  being  as 
smooth  of  surface  as  the  "  Kensington  art  squares  " 
of  our  day,  they  were  much  more  easily  swept  than 
the  ugly  rag  carpets;  and  being  of  wool,  honestly 
spun  and  woven,  were  practically  indestructible, 
save  by  moths.  Some  were  still  made  in  Connec 
ticut  well  into  this  century.  In  the  specimens 
which  I  have  seen  the  colors  were  a  rich  red,  a 
dark  yellow,  an  indigo  blue,  a  dingy  purple,  and  a 
dusky  green. 

The  bedroom  of  the  parson  and  his  wife,  com 
municating  directly  with  the  study,  and,  through  a 
passage,  with  the  kitchen  also,  was  a  fireless  room 
opening  to  the  south.  No  wonder  that  in  winter 
its  tall  four-poster  was  sheltered  with  heavily  woven 
linen  or  wool  curtains  under  the  more  decorative 
hangings  of  picture  chintz.  Bitterly  cold  and 
drafty,  in  zero  weather,  must  have  been  the 
rooms  whose  only  warmth  was  that  which  could 
escape  from  the  adjacent  rooms.  No  matter  how 
generous  might  be  the  blaze  of  the  open  wood  fire, 
far  more  of  its  heat  made  its  way  up  the  chimney- 
throat  than  to  the  opposite  wall  upon  which  its 
evening  shadows  gaily  danced,  and  still  smaller 
was  the  portion  which  could  be  coaxed  into  an 
adjoining  room. 

Heavy  bed-hangings  were  a  winter  necessity  be 
fore  steam-heat,  furnaces,  or  even  stoves  had  been 
invented.  My  father  and  his  brother,  who  well 
remembered  these  days,  which,  in  country  places, 


2ig 

continued  until  about  the  end  of  their  college  terms 
in  1830  and  1832,  have  told  me  that  on  cold 
nights,  after  the  fires  had  been  covered,  the  wind 
often  blew  in  great  gusts  down  the  wide-throated 
chimney,  and  that  then  the  bed-curtains,  heavy  as 
they  were,  "  blew  like  handkerchiefs  in  a  gale,"  and 
they  were  glad  enough  of  the  additional  protection 
for  their  ears  and  heads  of  warm  nightcaps  knitted 
by  grandmother,  mother,  or  cousin  from  the  yarn 
even  then  still  spun  at  home  from  the  wool  of 
their  own  sheep. 

As  friction  matches  did  not  come  into  general 
use  until  1835  or  thereabout,  it  was  still  the  cus 
tom  to  bank  the  fireplaces  with  ashes  at  night 
until  not  an  ember  or  spark  of  fire  could  be  seen, 
just  as  similar  fires  had  been  banked  for  untold 
centuries  before.  If  this  precaution  were  not 
thoroughly  taken  the  fires  were  an  ever-imminent 
danger.  On  very  cold  and  windy  nights  it  was  cus 
tomary  for  some  members  of  a  family  to  take  turns 
in  sitting  up  to  watch  the  fires. 

My  father,  when  a  boy  of  eight  or  nine  years, 
saw  his  father  display  to  admiring  neighbors  "  a 
wonderfully  handy  new  invention  by  which  fires 
could  be  readily  kindled."  Something  like  the 
trigger  of  a  flint-lock  musket  was  pulled,  and  a 
spark  struck  from  the  flint  and  steel,  which  ignited 
a  bit  of  punk;  this,  being  judiciously  blown  upon, 
set  fire  to  splinters  of  resinous  wood,  and  this,  in 
turn,  to  carefully  reared  piles  of  splintered  kin- 


220 


dlings  and  well-seasoned  logs.  Before  the  advent  of 
the  "fire-sparker  "  of  flint  and  steel,  when  the  earliest 
riser  of  a  family  was  so  unfortunate  as  to  find  that  the 
too  slightly  protected  embers  of  the  previous  night's 
fires  had  burned  themselves  out,  or  that  the  too 
densely  covered  ones  had  been  hopelessly  smo 
thered,  it  was  his  chilly  task  to  wait  and  watch  for  the 
nearest  chimney  which  should  show  rising  smoke, 
and  then  to  sally  forth,  with  chafing-dish  or  foot- 
stove  in  hand,  to  "  borrow  coals." 


CHAPTER   XIV 

HOME  CARES  IN  A  PARSONAGE 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

HOME    CARES    IN   A 
PARSONAGE. 

$ 

Madam    Smith's    Multi 
plied  Employments. 

Small  Incomes  and  Many 
Out-goes. 

Extracts     from     Madam 
Smith's  Reminiscences. 

The  Small-pox. 
Hospitality. 

The  Preaching  of  White- 
field. 


0 


f 


Madam  Smith's  time,  and  for 
many  a  long  year  before  and  af- 
ter»  there  was  never  a  matron  so 

Wea^tn7  tnat  sne  nad  not  ner  hands 
full  of  Martha-like  cares.  In 
general  the  richer  the  family  the  more  arduous 
were  these  cares;  but,  of  them  all,  not  even  the 
lady  of  a  manor  was  so  overburdened  as  was  the 
parson's  wife  —  the  "  madam,"  as  she  was  generally 
styled,  —  so  much  was  demanded  of  her,  so  multi 
farious  were  her  duties.  Ministerial  stipends  were 
then  very  small.  Mr.  Smith's  salary  at  the  time  of 
his  settlement,  in  1754,  was  "220  Spanish  dollars 
or  an  equivalent  in  old  tenor  bills."  In  addition 
to  this  he  was  to  receive,  as  what  was  then  known 
as  a  "  settlement,"  "  140  ounces  of  silver  or  an 
equivalent  in  old  tenor  bills,  annually  for  three 
years."  I  believe  that  the  yearly  salary  was  sub 
sequently  increased,  but  do  not  know  to  what 
extent. 

Salaries  of  four  or  even  of  three  hundred  dollars 
a  year  were  considered  liberal  in  country  places  un 
til  years  after  the  Revolution.  On  such  small  sums, 

223 


224 

eked  out  by  the  produce  from  a  certain  number  of 
acres  of  glebe-land,  the  minister  was  expected  not 
only  to  support  his  own  family,  but  to  bear  an  un 
due  share  in  the  entertaining  of  strangers,  as  well  as 
in  aiding  the  neighboring  poor.  When,  as  some 
times  happened,  either  the  pastor  or  his  wife  had 
private  property,  still  more  was  expected  of  them, 
and  rarely  indeed  did  they  fail  to  respond  to  this 
expectation.  Parson  Smith,  in  a  letter  to  his  son- 
in-law,  the  Rev.  Daniel  Smith  of  Stamford,  Con 
necticut,  written  in  1804,  states  that  in  his  family 
there  were  maintained,  in  addition  to  his  own  six 
children,  "an  average  of  four  penniless  orphans 
during  more  than  thirty  years."  These  were  not 
only  fed  and  clothed,  but  educated,  at  the  parson's 
sole  expense.  They,  with  his  own  children,  the 
divinity  students,  and  some  of  the  boys  whom  he 
fitted  for  college  and  who  resided  with  him,  made 
a  household  of  unusual  numbers  even  for  those 
days  of  large  families,  and  entailed  a  great  amount 
of  care  and  labor  on  his  own  part,  while  his  wife 
must  have  been  very  heavily  burdened. 

Long  working  hours  were  a  necessity  of  the 
period.  Five  o'clock  was  the  usual  breakfast-hour 
in  summer,  and  from  six  to  half-past  six  in  winter. 
Dinner  was  at  noon,  and  tea  at  six  in  winter  and 
seven  in  summer.  This  was  so  that  the  many  tasks 
might  be  accomplished,  for  sufficient  unto  each  day 
was  its  own  work ;  it  had  no  room  for  labors  left 
over  from  the  day  before. 


225 

Wheat,  rye,  and  corn  were  ground  into  flour  and 
meal  at  the  local  mills,  and  salted  fish,  sugar, 
molasses,  "  West  India  Sweetmeats,"  and,  except 
ing  in  war-times,  tea,  coffee,  and  chocolate,  could 
be  bought  at  the  village  stores;  but  aside  from 
these,  with  long  volumes  of  a  country  store's  ac 
count-books,  covering  many  years,  open  before  me, 
I  can  hardly  find  a  trace  of  any  kind  of  provisions 
that  did  not  have  to  be  produced  and  prepared, 
from  start  to  finish,  by  manual  labor  on  the  farms 
and  in  each  individual  household  —  and  all  this 
without  the  aid  of  any  of  the  toil-saving  devices 
which  we  now  deem  matters  of  course. 

Perhaps  an  idea  of  some  of  these  daily  labors 
may  be  best  conveyed  by  extracts  from  relations 
which  were  found  among  the  old  papers  some  years 
ago.  Mrs.  Smith  in  1775  had  made  the  week- 
long  and  perilous  journey  from  Sharon,  Connecti 
cut,  to  Fort  Ticonderoga,  where  her  husband  was 
dangerously  ill  of  camp  fever.  All  the  way  above 
Saratoga  was  through  an  unbroken  wilderness.  In 
after  years  Mrs.  Smith  told  her  story  many  times, 
and  at  least  three  of  her  children  made  notes  of  her 
narrations,  from  which  the  full  story  was  compiled 
and  told  in  the  first  person.  Some  years  ago  this 
was  published,  under  the  title  of"  Led  by  a  Vision," 
in  the  "  Home-Maker,"  a  magazine  then  most  ably 
edited  by  Mrs.  E.  P.  Terhune  — "  Marion  Har- 
land."  From  this  sketch  the  following  extracts 
are  taken  : 


226 


"  Your  dear  Father  was  among  the  very  first  to 
volunteer  and  received  the  honored  post  of  Chap 
lain  to  the  Fourth  Connecticut  Regiment,  com 
manded  by  Colonel  Hinman,  and  ordered  to  march 
to  Ticonderoga.  In  common  with  many  other 
well  qualified  Pastors  my  Husband  had  been  in  the 
habit  of  receiving  into  his  family  from  time  to  time 
such  young  men  as  might  wish,  after  leaving  college, 
to  fit  themselves  for  the  Gospel  Ministry.  At  this 
time  there  were  five  such  students  in  our  house. 
My  Husband  provided  for  them  by  engaging  his 
beloved  friend,the  Rev.  Dr.  Bellamy,  of  Bethlehem, 
to  come  and  reside  in  our  house,  prosecute  the 
education  of  the  young  theological  students,  supply 
the  Sharon  pulpit  and  attend  to  pastoral  duties  ; 
a  young  friend  of  Dr.  Bellamy  engaging  to  per 
form  like  brotherly  services  for  him  in  his  parish. 
As  Dr.  Bellamy  had  two  students  of  his  own  he 
brought  them  with  him,  which  added  to  those 
already  in  our  house  made  my  family  to  consist 
of  twenty-two  persons  besides  servants. 

"  In  our  present  state  of  peace  and  plenty  [1795] 
this  does  not  seem  so  very  great  a  burden ;  but  at 
that  time  when  the  exactions  of  the  Mother  Coun 
try  had  rendered  it  impossible  for  any  but  the 
wealthiest  to  import  anything  to  eat  or  wear,  and 
all  had  to  be  raised  and  manufactured  at  home, 
from  bread  stuffs,  sugar  and  rum  to  the  linen  and 
woollen  for  our  clothes  and  bedding,  you  may  well 
imagine  that  my  duties  were  not  light,  though  I 


can  say  for  myself  that  I  never  complained  even 
in  my  inmost  thoughts,  for  if  I  could  even  give  up 
for  the  honored  cause  of  Liberty,  the  Husband 
whom  I  loved  so  dearly  that  my  constant  fear  was 
lest  I  should  sin  to  idolatry,  it  would  assuredly 
have  ill  become  me  to  repine  at  any  inconvenience 
to  myself.  And  besides,  to  tell  the  truth,  I  had  no 
leisure  for  murmuring.  I  rose  with  the  sun  and 
all  through  the  long  day  I  had  no  time  for  aught 
but  my  work.  So  much  did  it  press  upon  me 
that  I  could  scarcely  divert  my  thoughts  from  its 
demands  even  during  the  family  prayers,  which 
thing  both  amazed  and  displeased  me,  for  during 
that  hour,  at  least,  I  should  have  been  sending  all 
my  thoughts  to  Heaven  for  the  safety  of  my  be 
loved  Husband  and  the  salvation  of  our  hapless 
Country ;  instead  of  which  I  was  often  wondering 
whether  Polly  had  remembered  to  set  the  sponge 
for  the  bread,  or  to  put  water  on  the  leach  tub,  or 
to  turn  the  cloth  in  the  dying  vat,  or  whether  wool 
had  been  carded  for  Betsey  to  start  her  spinning 
wheel  in  the  morning,  or  Billy  had  chopped  light- 
wood  enough  for  the  kindling,  or  dry  hard  wood 
enough  to  heat  the  big  oven,  or  whether  some 
other  thing  had  not  been  forgotten  of  the  thousand 
that  must  be  done  without  fail  or  else  there  would 
be  a  disagreeable  hitch  in  the  house-keeping;  so 
you  may  be  sure  that  when  I  went  to  bed  at  night, 
I  went  to  sleep  and  not  to  lie  awake  imagining  all 
sorts  of  disasters  that  might  happen.  There  was 


jggSE  LIB* 
OF  run 

UNIVERS 


228 


generally  enough  that  had  happened  to  keep  my 
mind  at  work  if  I  stayed  awake,  but  that  I  very 
seldom  did.  A  perfectly  healthy  woman  has  good 
powers  of  sleep.  ... 

"On  the  third  Sabbath  in  September  Dr.  Bel 
lamy  gave  us  a  sound  and  clear  sermon  in  which 
God's  watchful  Providence  over  his  People  was 
most  beautifully  depicted  and  drew  tears  from  the 
eyes  of  those  who  were  unused  to  weeping,  and 
during  the  prayer-meeting  in  the  evening  the  same 
thought  was  dwelt  upon  in  a  way  showing  that  all 
who  spoke  and  prayed  felt  that  our  God  is  indeed 
a  Father  to  all  who  trust  him;  so  that  on  that 
night  I  went  to  bed  in  a  calmer  and  more  con 
tented  frame  of  mind  than  usual.  I  had,  to  be 
sure,  been  much  displeased  to  find  that  our  supply 
of  bread  (through  some  wasteful  mismanagement 
of  Polly's)  had  grown  so  small  that  the  baking 
would  have  to  be  done  on  Monday  morning,  which 
is  not  good  house-keeping ;  for  the  washing  should 
always  be  done  on  Monday  and  the  bakings  on 
Tuesday,  Thursday  and  Saturday.  But  I  had 
caused  Polly  to  set  a  large  sponge  and  made  Billy 
provide  plenty  of  firing  so  that  by  getting  up  be 
times  in  the  morning  we  could  have  the  brick  oven 
heated  and  the  baking  out  of  the  way  by  the  time 
Billy  and  Jack  should  have  gotten  the  clothes 
pounded  out  ready  for  boiling,  so  that  the  two 
things  should  not  interfere  with  each  other.  The 
last  thought  on  my  mind  after  committing  my 


229 

dear  Husband  and  Country  into  our  Maker's  care 
for  the  night,  was  to  charge  my  mind  to  rise  even 
before  daylight  that  I  might  be  able  to  execute 
my  plans.  .  .  . 

"  As  early  as  three  o'clock  in  the  morning  I 
called  Nancy  and  Judy,  Jack  and  young  Billy, 
but  would  not  allow  old  Billy  to  be  disturbed ; 
whereat  the  rest  marvelled,  seeing  that  I  was  not 
used  to  be  more  tender  of  him  than  of  any  of  the 
other  servants,  but  rather  the  less  so  in  that  he  was 
my  own  slave  that  my  Father  had  given 'to  me 
upon  my  marriage.  But  I  let  them  marvel,  for 
truly  it  was  no  concern  of  theirs,  and  by  five 
o'clock  the  bread  was  ready  to  be  moulded,  the 
hickory  coals  were  lying  in  a  great  glowing  mass 
on  the  oven  bottom,  casting  a  brilliant  light  over 
its  vaulted  top  and  sending  such  a  heat  into  my 
face  when  I  passed  by  the  oven  mouth  that  it 
caused  me  to  think  then,  as  it  always  does,  of 
Nebuchadnezzar's  fiery  furnace,  seven  times  heated. 
Young  Billy  was  already  pounding  out  the  clothes 
and  over  the  fire  Jack  was  hanging  the  great  brass 
kettles  for  the  wash,  while  Nancy  and  Judy  had 
made  ready  the  smoking  hot  piles  of  Johnny  cake, 
the  boiler  of  wheat  coffee  (which  was  all  we  could 
get  in  those  days,  and  a  poor  substitute  it  was  for 
good  Mocha)  and  the  big  platter  of  ham  and  eggs 
and  plenty  of  good  potatoes  roasted  in  the  ashes, 
which  is  the  best  way  that  potatoes  can  be  cooked, 
in  my  opinion." 


230 

The  diverse  housewifely  cares  indicated  in  the 
foregoing  extracts  show  but  a  few  of  the  many 
which  fell  to  the  lot  of  all  colonial  women  of  the 
better  classes.  Upon  the  minister's  wife  devolved 
still  other  duties.  She  was  expected  to  assist  at  all 
the  births,  weddings,  and  funerals,  not  only  in  the 
French  sense,  but  as  an  active  helper.  It  is  related 
of  Madam  Smith  that  for  thirty  years  it  was  into 
her  hands  that  most  of  the  new-born  babies  of  her 
husband's  parish  were  committed  for  their  first  rob- 
ings.  And  there  being  then,  in  country  places  at 
least,  no  undertakers,  as  we  now  understand  the 
term,  but  in  their  stead  only  cabinet-makers  who 
made  coffins  as  well  as  cradles,  chairs,  and  tables, 
Mrs.  Smith  shared  with  other  ladies  the  last  sad 
offices  for  friends  and  neighbors. 

In  times  of  general  sickness  —  which  were  much 
more  frequent  than  now,  owing  to  the  ignorance  of 
sanitary  precautions  and  all  means  for  controlling 
contagious  disease  —  both  the  pastor  and  his  wife 
were  ever  at  the  service  of  the  flock.  It  is  re 
corded  in  Sedgwick's  valuable  history  of  Sharon 
that  in  the  winter  of  1 784-85  there  was  "  a  three 
months'  visitation  of  the  town  by  the  small-pox, 
during  which  seven  hundred  persons  out  of  a 
population  of  about  two  thousand  had  the  dreaded 
disease,  either  naturally  or  by  inoculation,"  and  that 
throughout  this  time  of  distress  Parson  Smith  and 
his  wife  "spent  their  entire  time  in  close  atten 
dance  upon  the  sick  and  dying." 


The  entertainment  of  strangers  was  a  duty  which 
perhaps  devolved  more  frequently  upon  the  family 
of  a  country  pastor  than  it  should  have  been  per 
mitted  to  do,  but  there  were  occasions  when  the 
hosts  felt  themselves  much  more  than  repaid. 

Such  an  occasion  came  to  Parson  and  Mrs. 
Smith  in  the  month  of  June  in  1770.  On  the 
i8th  of  this  month  came  the  Rev.  George  White- 
field  on  his  last  and  greatest  preaching  tour.  He 
had  passed  up  the  Hudson  River,  stopping  to 
preach  at  all  towns  which  would  give  him  a  hear 
ing,  including  Albany,  wrhence  he  passed  onward 
to  Schenectady.  Turning  at  this  point,  he  had 
come  southward  again,  visiting  townships  from 
twenty  to  thirty  or  more  miles  back  from  the  east 
ern  bank  of  the  river,  and  preaching  wherever  al 
lowed  to  do  so  in  the  churches,  otherwise  in  the 
open  air,  until  he  reached  Sharon.  Here,  as  had 
happened  in  many  other  places,  "  there  was,"  says 
Mr.  Sedgwick,  "  considerable  opposition  to  his 
being  permitted  to  preach  in  the  meeting-house," 
but  Parson  Smith's  influence,  always  inclined  to  the 
liberal  side  on  any  question,  prevailed,  and  the 
church  doors  were  opened,  and,  "that  all  the 
hearers  from  this  and  the  neighboring  towns  might 
be  well  accommodated  with  seats,  extensive  scaf 
folds  were  erected  all  around  the  house." 

A  few  of  the  children  and  many  of  the  grand 
children  of  those  who  had  heard  Whitefield  in 
Sharon  on  this  occasion  were  living  in  my  girl- 


hood,  and  marvelous  indeed  must  have  been  the 
eloquence  that  was  followed  by  such  deep  and  far- 
reaching  results,  and  was  remembered  so  long. 

Most  marvelous  must  the  preacher's  successful 
efforts  have  seemed  to  one  who,  like  Madam 
Smith,  had  spent  the  entire  previous  night  by 
his  bedside,  burning  dried  stramonium-leaves  that 
he  might  inhale  the  smoke,  and  in  various  other 
ways  doing  her  utmost  to  enable  the  sufferer  to 
get  his  breath,  under  the  violent  attacks  of  asthma 
which,  three  months  later,  ended  his  career. 

Mrs.  Smith  and  others  had  feared,  all  through 
this  anxious  night,  that  their  revered  patient  would 
pass  from  earth  before  the  morning's  sun  should 
rise,  yet  as  it  rose  his  sufferings  became  gradually 
less.  He  had  two  or  three  hours  of  refreshing 
sleep,  followed  by  draughts  of  strong  coffee,  and 
before  the  noon  came  he  was  able  to  preach  such  a 
sermon  as  even  he  could  seldom  do,  while  his 
grand  voice,  "  as  soft  as  a  flute  and  as  piercing  as 
a  fife,"  carried  for  almost  incredible  distances,  not 
only  his  text,  "Marvel  not  that  I  said  unto  thee, 
Ye  must  be  born  again,"  but  all  save  the  finer 
shadings  of  his  message. 

The  letter  of  thanks  and  farewell  sent  by  Mr. 
Whitefield  from  his  dying  bed  at  Newburyport, 
Massachusetts,  did  not  reach  Parson  and  Mrs. 
Smith  until  more  than  a  month  after  its  writer  had 
there  drawn  his  last  agonized  breath ;  but  it  was 
long  cherished  as  a  token  from  an  angel  visitant. 


CHAPTER   XV 

SUNDAYS   AND   OTHER    DAYS   IN    THE 
PARSONAGE 


CHAPTER    XV. 

SUNDAYS   AND    OTHER 

DAYS   IN  THE  PAR 

SONAGE. 


From  Sunset  to  Sunset. 

The  Weekly  Ablution. 

Care  of  the  Teeth. 

Long  Services. 

Catechizing. 

Sunday  Night. 

Fashions  and  Clothes. 

An  Evening  of  Sacrifice 


I  ROM  the  beginning  of  the  New- 
Englander's  Sabbath,  at  sunset  on 
Saturday  evening,  the  housewife 
must  have  found  that  portion  of 
sacred  time  anything  but  a  period 
of  rest.  The  Saturday  evening  meal  must  be 
hastened,  that  the  dishes  might  be  washed  in  secu 
lar  time.  Personal  ablutions  were  held  to  be  labor 
not  unbefitting  the  holy  day,  and  from  the  earliest 
times  in  the  New  England  colonies,  the  Saturday 
evenings  were  devoted,  first  to  an  hour's  catechiz 
ing,  and  then  to  the  conscientious  scrubbing  (this 
word  sounds  a  little  harsh,  but  it  is  probably  the 
correct  one  to  describe  the  process)  of  each  person 
in  the  family,  beginning  with  the  youngest  and  con 
cluding  with  the  oldest  members  of  the  household., 
As  special  rooms  for  bathing,  with  hot  and  cold 
water  to  be  had  with  the  turning  of  the  faucet, 
were  then  undreamed-of  luxuries,  some  have  sup 
posed  that  in  the  frequently  excessive  cold,  and 
under  the  lack  of  all  conveniences,  our  ancestors 
were  neglectful  of  the  grace  of  personal  cleanliness. 
This  is,  in  all  probability,  a  grave  mistake.  Both 

235 


tradition  and  written  contemporary  evidence  go  to 
prove  that  personal  cleanliness  was  enjoined  a  s  a 
religious  duty,  and  that  it  was  a  duty  religioi  isly 
fulfilled,  under  whatever  difficulties. 

Hot  water  could  only  be  procured  by  heating  '  in 
great  iron  pots  over  the  open   fires,  and  the  t  ubs 
employed   for  bathing  were  in  general  the   SL  ».me 
which  were  used  for  the  clothes-washings  on  M  on- 
days,  but  not  always.     Some  tubs  were  made    for 
bathing  purposes  only,  of  cedar,  and  large  enou{  jjh 
for  a  tall  man  to  lie  in  at  full  length.     When  th  \e 
mother  of  the  Rev.  C.  M.  Smith  came  to  Sharoi  i 
from  Suffield,  Connecticut,  about  1770,  she  brought 
with  her  a  tub  of  this  sort.     As  there  were  no  stated 
rooms  for  bathing,  the  tubs  were  usually  left  in  the 
cellars  through  the  week,  that  they  might  not  be 
come  dry  enough  to  leak.     If  a  fire  were  not  kept 
in  the  best  room  all  the  rest  of  the  week,  one  would 
be  lighted  there  on  every  Saturday  during  the  cold 
season,  and  maintained  until  late  on  Sunday  night. 
This  left  free  the  fires  in  the  kitchens  for  the  ser 
vants,  and  those  in  the  living-rooms  for  the  family. 
Here  the  carpets,  if  any,  were  protected,  and  the 
tubs  were  set,  each  one  shielded  from  view  on  all 
sides,  save  that  nearest  the  fire,  by  heavy  woolen 
coverlets    or    blankets    hung    over    clothes-horses. 
With  the  generous  size  of  the  fireplaces  of  those 
days,  as  many  as  three  or  even  more  such  curtained 
cabinets  might  be  made  in  front  of  each  fire.     As 
much  cold  water  as  was  desired  was  poured  into 


237 

each  tub  and  was  then  brought  to  the  required 
temperature  by  the  addition  of  boiling  water  from 
the  great  iron  or  brass  kettles. 

The  carrying  out  the  water  that  had  been  used 
by  each  bather,  and  emptying  the  tubs  at  a  little 
distance  from  the  house,  occasionally  into  a  sub 
surface  drain,  as  at  the  parsonage,  or,  as  in  most 
cases,  into  shallow  ditches,  and  of  refilling  the  tubs, 
was  severe  labor,  and  would  probably  devolve 
upon  the  strongest  of  the  servants  or  members  of 
the  family. 

Certainly  much,  and  probably  all,  of  the  soap 
used  in  the  colonies  was  of  home  manufacture, 
and  was  so  harsh  in  its  quality  that  as  little  of  it  as 
possible  was  used  upon  the  person.  Those  who 
were  careful  for  their  complexions  rarely  used  any 
soap  about  their  faces,  but  instead  softened  the 
water  by  a  very  little  lye  made  from  the  ashes  of 
hard  woods.  Rose-water  of  home  distillation  and 
various  unguents  were  then  applied  to  heal  the 
smart.  In  warm  weather  buttermilk  was  con 
sidered  excellent  for  the  complexion,  and  in  severe 
winter  weather  cider  brandy  was  used  by  some, 
and  an  ointment  of  mutton  tallow  and  lard  by 
others. 

The  house-mistress  had  not  only  to  see  that  all 
was  in  readiness  for  this  great  weekly  ablution,  but 
that  none  for  whom  she  was  responsible  should  es 
cape  it.  Nothing  but  a  case  of  severe  illness  was 
allowed  to  excuse  any  inmate  of  a  self-respecting 


238 

household.  This  state  of  things  lasted  until  within 
my  mother's  remembrance.  She  was  born  in  1810, 
and  one  of  her  earliest  recollections  was  of  seeing 
old  "Kongo  Sally,"  armed  with  a  stout  switch, 
driving  the  young  darkies,  some  of  whom  were 
her  own  grandchildren,  in  from  the  outbuildings  in 
which  they  sought  refuge,  to  undergo  their  weekly 
scrubbing  from  her  merciless  hands  and  those  of 
one  or  two  assistants.  / 

As  dentistry  was  an  art  still  in  the  future,  de 
cayed  teeth  were  the  rule  rather  than  the  excep 
tion  among  adults  until  well  into  the  present 
century ;  yet  persons  of  refined  instincts  never  omit 
ted  cleansing  the  teeth.  Juliana  Smith,  writing  to 
her  brother  in  1782,  says:  "Peggy  Evertson  has 
showed  me  a  present  her  father  brought  her  from 
Albany.  It  is  a  brush  for  the  teeth  made  of  fine, 
stiff,  white  bristles  set  in  a  back  of  mother  of  pearl. 
It  is  better  than  the  sassafras  twigs  which  Tite 
Caesar  fringes  out  for  us,  because  with  the  brush 
you  can  better  cleanse  the  backs  of  the  teeth.  You 
wanted  to  know  what  you  should  bring  me  from 
New  Haven  when  you  come  back,  so  I  write  about 
this,  if  so  be  you  might  find  me  one.  Only  it  need 
not  have  so  fine  a  back,  one  of  wood  or  horn  would 
please  me  as  well."  Tooth-brushes  are  mentioned 
in  the  Verney  papers,  about  1650,  as  'J  elegant  tri 
fles  now  used  by  the  ladies  of  the  French  Capital." 
But  smoothly  rounded  bits  of  wood,  sharpened  at 
one  end,  and  at  the  other  finely  splintered  and  then 


2V) 
— 

pounded  into  the  semblance  of  a  round  paint 
brush,  were  in  use  in  England  long  before  that,  and 
washes  for  "  cleanseing  the  teeth  and  sweetning  the 
breath  "  are  mentioned  in  the  outfit  of  the  child- 
bride  of  Richard  II. 

The  Sharon  parsonage  was  distinguished  above 
many  others  of  its  time  in  that  the  best  of  water  for 
all  purposes  was  brought  into  the  house  from  a  dis 
tant  spring  by  a  primitive  aqueduct  of  cedar  logs, 
bored  through  their  length  to  form  tubes,  then 
tightly  fitted  together,  and  laid  at  a  depth  of  several 
feet  beneath  the  surface  to  protect  them  from  the 
frost,  while  the  refuse  water  was  discharged  in  a 
similar  way  in  the  opposite  direction  at  a  distance 
from  any  dwelling.  Within  a  few  years  some  of 
these  logs  have  been  dug  up,  still  in  a  state  of  fair 
preservation,  while  the  decaying  remains  of  others 
lay  near  by.  From  the  same  spring  which  supplied 
the  parsonage  the  delicious  water  was  similarly 
conducted  into  the  stone  mansion  of  Dr.  Simeon 
Smith.  There  still  remains  the  basin  which  once 
received  and  discharged  the  water  in  this  house. 
It  is  of  smooth  and  finely  grained  limestone,  about 
fourteen  inches  in  diameter  at  the  top,  and  of  equal 
depth.  Since  the  introduction  of  modern  plumb 
ing  this  basin  has  been  used  as  a  pot  to  hold 
growing  plants  out  of  doors. 

Of  course  the  Puritan  parson's  wife  was  expected 
to  attend  every  Sabbath  service  as  strictly  as  him 
self,  and  perhaps  it  was  not  always  either  pleasant 


240 


or  convenient  for  her  to  do  so;  but  it  is  not  neces 
sary  to  dwell  upon  that  part.  Quite  enough  has 
been  said  by  the  last  generation  or  two  of  persons 
who,  judging  others  by  themselves,  fancy  that  two 
long  sermons  and  a  prayer-meeting  must  have 
wearied  both  the  souls  and  the  bodies  of  our  an 
cestors,  as  they  would  our  own.  This  is  not  at  all 
probable.  They  really  liked  the  long  preachments, 
the  endless  prayers,  the  unmusical  singing.  Nay, 
more,  they  loved  all  of  them.  They  saw  and 
heard  with  spiritual  eyes  and  ears,  with  an  inner 
uplifting  which  imparted  light,  perfume,  and  har 
mony  to  their  barren  surroundings.  I  do  not  say  that 
there  were  not  many  who  inwardly  and  some  who 
openly  rebelled  at  these  things,  but  they  were  in  a 
minority.  There  is  every  proof  that  the  majority 
really  enjoyed  what  we  should  now  consider  as  very 
tiresome  Sundays. 

To  walk,  to  ride  on  horseback,  or  to  drive  in 
springless  wagons  over  miles  of  often  intolerable 
roads,  and  then  spend  two  hours  in  a  tireless  church 
on  a  winter  day,  and,  after  an  hour's  interval,  to  spend 
another  two  hours  in  the  same  way,  does  not  seem 
very  inviting  to  us;  but,  in  addition  to  the  strong 
religious  motives  to  sustain  them,  these  people 
had  social  motives  as  well.  The  Sunday  services 
were  pleasures  all  the  more  valuable  because  they 
were  shared  in  common.  The  noon  intermission 
was  a  season  of  social  communion  most  keenly  en 
joyed,  and  the  still  later  adjournment  of  all  to  the 


catechizing  at  the  parsonage  was  made  interesting 
by  the  permitted  freedom  of  discussion,  and  the 
subsequent  interchange  of  views  and  friendly  greet 
ings.  Books  were  scarce;  newspapers,  in  our 
sense,  were  non-existent ;  and  of  such  periodicals  as 
there  were,  but  few  would  be  taken  in  a  small 
township.  Any  new  books  or  papers  would  first 
find  their  way  to  the  parson,  and  every  intelligent 
stranger  passing  through  the  place  would  call  at 
the  parsonage,  paying  for  his  entertainment  by 
bringing  as  much  news  from  the  outside  world  as 
he  had  been  able  to  collect  on  his  journey,  and  re 
ceiving  as  much  local  information  as  he  could  get 
to  carry  away  with  him  and  distribute  as  he  pro 
ceeded  on  his  travels.  The  parsonage  was  an  in 
telligence  exchange,  and  the  parson  was  expected 
to  give  from  the  pulpit  any  new  religious  or  politi 
cal  information  that  he  had  gained  through  the 
week,  and,  after  the  Sunday  afternoon  catechizing, 
his  family  shared  with  him  the  pleasure  and  duty 
oflimparting  any  bits  of  more  personal  interest  that 
had  come  to  their  knowledge. 

It  was  fortunate  for  the  madam  that  Puritan 
usage  required  that  as  little  cooking  as  might  be 
should  be  done  on  the  Sabbath,  for  otherwise  time 
and  strength  would  both  have  failed  her;  but  the 
sacred  hours  ended  with  the  setting  of  the  sun, 
and  after  this  there  was  cooked  and  served  the  best 
meal  of  the  week,  which  was  made  an  occasion  of 
real  festivity,  and  enjoyed  with  the  keen  zest  im- 


16 


parted  by  long  anticipation,  by  the  easy  assurance 
that  it  had  been  well  earned,  and  by  the  certainty 
that,  though  the  morrow's  toils  were  lying  in  wait, 
they  could  not  spoil  the  pleasures  of  this  hour.  > 

During  this  privileged  time  after  the  "  Sunday 
night  supper,"  the  young  folks  separated  into 
groups,  unrebuked  by  their  elders.  The  children 
played  games,  elderly  men  talked  of  theological 
dogmas,  politics,  and  crops,  and  women  of  their 
household  employments  and  clothes. 

Fashions,  like  materials,  were  then  much  more 
durable  than  now.  As  there  were  no  fashion- 
papers,  intelligence  on  this  subject  could  only  be 
transmitted  from  mouth  to  mouth.  A  new  paper 
or  cloth  pattern  was  a  treasure  indeed.  It  must 
not  be  supposed  that  these  notable  women  talked 
only  about  their  own  clothes,  and  exchanged  only 
the  patterns  of  women's  and  infants'  apparel.  The 
attire  of  husbands  and  brothers  was  a  matter  of 
equally  practical  concern  to  them.  The  parson's 
preaching-suit  —  black  cloth  knee-breeches  and 
straight-cut  coat  —  might  be  made  by  some  itine 
rant  tailor,  passing  from  house  to  house  during  the 
winter,  as  was  the  custom  of  the  day,  or  might  in 
a  few  instances  have  been  bought  in  distant  New 
York  or  New  Haven;  and  the  sheer  linen  for  his 
bands  was  probably  imported  from  Holland :  but 
all  his  other  garments  (and  those  of  most  of  the 
men  in  his  parish),  including  the  long,  knitted  silk 
stockings  (worn  over  woolen  ones  in  winter),  were 


HI 

necessarily  of  home  manufacture.  Besides  the 
linen  for  the  minister's  bands,  the  silk  for  his  stock 
ings  was  imported ;  but  every  thread  of  the  rest  of 
his  apparel,  from  the  finest  linen  for  his  handker 
chiefs  and  shirts,  to  the  woolen  yarn  for  his  under 
clothes,  was  grown  or  raised  upon  his  own  ground, 
tilled  and  cared  for,  harvested  and  cured  if  it  were 
flax,  or  sheared  and  carded  if  it  were  wool,  by  his 
own  hands  or  those  of  his  employees,  at  least  some  of 
whom  must  have  been  slaves;  and  their  clothing  also 
had  to  be  provided  for  by  his  labor  and  foresight. 
All  New  England  ministers  were  to  a  certain 
extent  farmers  as  well  as  pastors,  and  where  the 
parson's  labors  ceased  those  of  the  madam  and  her 
daughters  and  women  began.  Men  hatcheled  the 
flax,  and  both  men  and  women  carded  wool.  The 
spinning  was  always  the  work  of  women,  while 
weaving  was  done  principally  by  men.  Between 
them  they  spun,  knitted,  wove,  fulled  and  dyed, 
cut,  fitted,  and  adorned  all  the  textile  fabrics  worn. 
Carpets  were  seldom  woven  at  home,  and  damask 
table-linen,  if  not  imported,  was  usually  the  work 
of  a  professional  weaver.  So,  too,  were  the  blue- 
and-white  or  green-and-white  all  wool  or  cotton- 
and-wool  coverlets  of  elaborate  patterns  of  which 
so  many  still  remain;  but  the  yarn  or  thread  for 
them  all,  whether  linen,  cotton,  or  wool,  was  spun 
at  home.  Sheets,  blankets,  and  all  simply  striped 
or  checked  table-linen  and  bed-hangings  were 
woven  as  well  as  spun  at  home.  / 


244 

The  summers  were  especially  busy,  neither  men 
nor  women,  bond  nor  free,  those  in  the  prime  of 
life  nor  the  aged,  nor  children,  could  idle  away  the 
long  summer  days.  The  great  grain-fields  of  the 
West  were  still  unawakened  from  their  ages  of 
slumber.  Wheat,  rye,  buckwheat,  corn,  oats,  must 
all  be  raised  here. 

With  agricultural  implements  so  imperfect  that 
no  modern  farmer  would  condescend  to  use  them, 
the  labors  of  planting,  sowing,  haying,  and  harvest 
ing  were  great.  In  these  days  we  know  the  evils 
of  competition  and  the  nervous  strain  from  the 
perpetual  unrest  of  our  lives,  but  we  know  neither 
the  disadvantages  of  severe  manual  labor  nor  much 
about  the  ceaseless  toil  necessary  in  summer  to 
provide  for  winter's  daily  physical  needs.  These 
labors  were  healthful  in  their  nature,  but  pitiless 
in  their  exactions. 

Winter's  toils  were  sufficiently  arduous.  Pro 
viding  the  fuel  for  the  indispensable  and  endlessly 
craving  open  wood  fires  was  alone  a  heavy  task, 
and  there  were  many  others,  such  as  the  daily  care 
of  the  horses,  sheep,  swine,  and  fowls;  yet  in 
winter  it  was  possible  to  find  time  to  read,  write, 
and  study,  as  well  as  to  enjoy  such  social  gather 
ings  as  might  combine  amusement  with  work. 
What  some  of  these  pleasures  were  may  be  seen 
in  other  chapters.  Here  we  will  only  glance  at 
one  which  was  peculiar  to  the  Revolutionary 
period. 


245 


Bullets  had  become  very  scarce.  Madam  Smith, 
like  most  well-to-do  matrons  of  her  time,  possessed 
a  goodly  store  of  pewter  plates,  platters,  cups,  bowls, 
and  porringers.  Several  of  the  neighboring  ladies 
were  equally  well  supplied.  On  a  certain  early 
spring  evening  in  1777  Madam  Smith  invited  all 
to  come  and  bring  with  them  every  pewter  dish 
which  they  could  spare.  Before  the  time  for 
separation  came  many  gallons  of  good  bullets  had 
been  made  from  the  cherished  pewter  articles,  which 
had  been  melted  and  merrily  run  through  bullet 
molds,  and  a  good  supper  had  been  heartily  en 
joyed.  For  many  evenings  after  this  one  of  cheer 
ful  sacrifice,  there  were  held  from  house  to  house 
so-called  "  trencher  bees,"  whereat  the  young  men 
cut  and  shaped  maple  and  poplar  wood  into  dishes, 
which  the  women  made  smooth  by  scraping  with 
broken  glass,  and  polished  with  the  clean  white 
sand  of  powdered  limestone.  Madam  Smith,  and 
probably  most  of  the  other  contributors  to  the  bul 
let  fund,  possessed  a  good  deal  of  pretty  Lowestoft 
and  Delft,  as  well  as  Canton  blue  china,  but  the 
every-day  use  of  such  fragile  dishes  was  not  to  be 
thought  of,  especially  in  war-time,  when  they  could 
in  nowise  be  replaced ;  hence  the  necessity  for  the 
return  to  the  primitive  wooden  dishes  of  the  sev 
enteenth  century. 

All  existing  records  of  Madam  Smith  —  and  they 
are  many  —  prove  her  to  have  been  one  of  those 
noble  women,  a  few  of  whom  are  to  be  found  in  all 


246 


countries  and  in  every  age,  who  are  so  cheerfully 
brave  that  they  face  suffering  and  danger  in  all 
forms,  unconscious  that  they  are  doing  anything 
more  than  any  other  would  do,  yet  so  lovable  and 
so  gracious  in  their  strength  that  they  are  mourned 
until  the  last  one  who  knew  them  has  himself 
passed  from  earthly  scenes.  Madam  Smith  died  in 
1800,  and  for  all  the  years  after  her  decease  until 
her  husband  and  the  latest  lingerer  of  her  children 
had  departed  to  join  her,  the  letters  which  passed 
between  the  survivors  are  filled  with  touching 
references  to  the  beloved  wife  and  revered  mother. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

MANOR    LADIES    AS    REFUGEES 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

MANOR    LADIES    AS 
REFUGEES. 

* 

Flight  of  the  Livingstons 
from  Kingston  and  Cler- 

mont  to  Litchfield 

County,  Connecticut. 

The  Young  Van  Rens- 

selaer. 

Westerlo. 

Vaughan's  Raid. 

Ladies  as  Hostlers. 

Husking  Bees. 


URING  the  War  of  the  Revolu 
tion  those  manors  which  were 
situated  on  or  near  the  Hudson 
River  were  exposed  to  the  ravages 
of  both  parties  in  the  struggle  — 
some  from  the  British  forces  and  some  from  the 
Continental  armies,  according  to  the  side  which 
had  been  espoused  by  the  respective  owners  of 
the  manors.  The  De  Lanceys  were  not  techni 
cally  manor-holders,  but  their  estates  were  so  large 
that  they  were  popularly  reckoned ,  as  such,  and 
they,  with  the  family  from  the  Phillipse  Patent, 
sought  refuge  within  the  British  lines,  while  the 
patriotic  Van  Rensselaers,  Van  Cortlandts,  and 
Livingstons  retired  to  regions  that  were  so  far 
from  the  harassed  territory  as  to  promise  compara 
tive  safety. 

First,  the  Van  Cortlandts  fled  from  the  Neutral 
Ground,  carrying  as  many  of  their  household  pos 
sessions  as  they  could  by  sloops,  and  having  their 
flocks  and  herds  driven  up  through  the  country  in 
patriarchal  fashion,  to  seek  refuge  among  Mrs. 
Van  Cortlandt's  relatives,  the  Livingstons,  in  Co- 

249 


25° 

lumbia  and  Dutchess  counties.  But  by  the  autumn 
of  1777  this  neighborhood  had  become  almost  as 
full  of  danger  as  the  lower  counties,  and  all  promi 
nent  persons,  both  refugees  and  natives,  were 
obliged  to  strike  their  tents  and  seek  shelter  in 
happier  regions. 

For  many  of  them  the  new  haven  of  refuge  ex 
isted  in  the  northwestern  corner  of  the  State  of  Con 
necticut,  about  midway  between  the  Hudson  and 
Connecticut  rivers,  and  from  eighty  to  one  hundred 
miles  from  salt  water.  Here,  at  a  safe  distance 
from  water-highways,  in  one  of  the  healthfulest  and 
most  placidly  beautiful  of  highlands,  the  horrors  of 
war  never  penetrated,  though  its  terrors  were 
abundantly  known  to  those  —  and  they  were  a 
majority  of  the  inhabitants  —  who  had  sent  their 
best  beloved  to  battle  for  the  cause  which  they 
held  dearer  than  life  or  estates. 

The  earliest  of  the  manor  families  to  take  ad 
vantage  of  this  haven  of  rest  among  the  hills  ap 
pears  to  have  been  that  of  Mrs.  Van  Rensselaer, 
widow  of  the  sixth  patroon,  and  mother  of  the  deli 
cate  boy  who  afterward  became  the  honored  General 
Van  Rensselaer,  and  who,  even  after  the  new  state 
of  things  had  relegated  such  titles  to  the  realm  of 
the  past,  was  by  courtesy  styled  the  seventh  pa 
troon.  The  lad's  mother  was  a  daughter  of  Philip 
Livingston,  a  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence,  and  upon  this  grandfather  the  general 
care  of  the  promising  boy's  education  devolved 


until  Mr.  Livingston's  death  in  June  of  1778. 
Singularly  enough,  there  appears  to  be  no  published 
reference  to  the  sojourn  of  young  Van  Rensselaer  in 
Connecticut,  it  being  stated  that  he  went  directly 
from  Kingston,  New  York,  to  Harvard  College. 
Yet  the  proof  is  positive  that  during  the  summer 
of  1777  the  young  patroon  and  his  mother,  who 
had  first  retired  to  Philip  Livingston's  temporary 
residence  at  Kingston,  finding  the  dangers  to  which 
the  young  heir  was  there  exposed,  retreated  to  Con 
necticut  in  the  safer  recesses  of  the  Litchfield 
County  hills.  Here  they  continued  to  reside  dur 
ing  much,  if  not  all,  of  the  following  year.  Prob 
ably  they  were  led  to  the  beautiful  village  of  Sharon 
by  the  previous  friendship  of  Mrs.  Van  Rensselaer 
with  the  wife  of  the  Rev.  Cotton  Mather  Smith, 
who  was  pastor  there.  When  the  first  of  these 
ladies  was  Catherine  Livingston  of  New  York 
city,  and  the  second  was  Temperance  Worthing- 
ton  of  Saybrook,  Connecticut,  the  two  had  some 
where  become  intimate  friends  —  possibly  at  school 
in  New  Rochelle,  where  there  were  at  that  time 
several  rather  noted  private  schools  conducted 
by  the  refugee  Huguenots  or  their  immediate 
descendants. 

Sometime  during  1775  the  widowed  Mrs.  Van 
Rensselaer  had  married  her  second  husband,  the 
Rev.  Eilardus  Westerlo  of  the  Reformed  Dutch 
Church.  In  the  papers  at  my  command  she  is 
never  called  Mrs.  Westerlo,  but,  probably  from 


habit,  is  indifferently  referred  to  as  "  Mrs.  Van  R." 
or  as  the  "  Mother  of  the  young  Patroon "  or  as 
44  Catherine  Livingston,"  though  there  is  little  doubt 
that  Mr.Westerlo  was  of  the  party,  for  I  find  that  one 
of  that  name  occupied  Mr.  Smith's  pulpit  twice  in 
November  of  1777;  but  I  find  no  other  mention 
of  him,  while  it  is  recorded  that  "  young  Van  R. 
and  his  mother,"  and  a  little  later  the  Rev.  John 
Rodgers  of  the  Brick  Church  of  New  York  city, 
were  received  into  the  family  of  the  Rev.  C.  M. 
Smith,  under  whose  direction  young  Stephen  Van 
Rensselaer  and  the  "  Parson's  son,"  afterward  Gov 
ernor  John  Cotton  Smith  of  Connecticut,  prosecuted 
their  studies  for  college  as  diligently  as  if  such  a 
thing  as  war  was  never  heard  of.  The  first  inten 
tion  of  young  Van  Rensselaer's  guardians  had  been 
that  he  should  enter  Yale  College,  of  which  his 
grandfather  and  the  latter's  four  brothers  had  been 
graduates,  but  eventually  Harvard  was  chosen  as 
being  safer  from  the  raids  of  the  enemy. 

The  arrival  of  this  little  company  in  advance  of 
the  main  body  of  the  refugees  is  traditionally  said 
to  have  been  due  to  repeated  attempts  on  the  part 
of  armed  bands  of  Tories  to  abduct  the  wealthy 
young  patroon  in  the  hope  of  extorting  a  heavy 
ransom.  The  later  flight  of  the  family  of  Philip 
Livingston  and  the  other  families  that  had  been 
sheltered  under  his  roof  at  Kingston  was  extremely 
hurried,  but  probably  not  quite  unpremeditated ; 
otherwise  there  could  not  have  been  so  much 


253 

household  furniture  and  stuff  brought  across  the 
river  and  over  the  forty  or  more  miles  of  intervening 
hills  and  dales. 

On  the  day  of  the  departure  from  Kingston  a 
"  mounted  runner  "  had  been  sent  ahead  to  secure 
in  Sharon  such  accommodations  as  might  be  avail 
able.  The  women  and  children  were  therefore  im 
mediately  provided  with  shelter,  but  for  several 
nights  their  male  companions  were  obliged  to  sleep 
in  haymows.  Refugees  from  places  farther  down 
the  Hudson  River  had  been  for  days,  and  even 
weeks,  straggling  into  the  little  village,  and  many 
of  them  were  without  money  or  goods,  so  that  the 
resources  of  the  hospitable  inhabitants  had  been 
already  severely  taxed. 

Next  door  to  the  parsonage,  where  the  first  of 
the  manor  parties  had  been  received,  was  a  hand 
some  but  not  very  large  brick  cottage,  owned  by 
Robert  G.  Livingston,  which,  during  this  season  of 
fear,  must  have  been  more  than  sufficiently  filled. 
Mr.  Robert  G.  Livingston's  family  was  numerous 
enough  to  crowd  it  without  counting  servants,  and 
to  this  number  was  now  added  the  family  of  his 
relative  Philip  Livingston,  and  that  of  the  latter's 
daughter  Sarah  and  her  husband,  the  Rev.  John 
Henry  Livingston.  The  house  —  which,  by  succes 
sive  additions,  all  of  them  fortunately  in  keeping 
with  the  architecture  of  the  original  structure,  is 
now  a  truly  beautiful  as  well  as  spacious  cot 
tage  belonging  to  the  Rev.  C.  C.  Tiffany  —  then 


254 

contained  but  three  rooms  on  the  ground  floor  and 
three  on  the  second,  with  two  tolerably  spacious 
attics  over  all;  and,  like  the  five  loaves  and  two  small 
fishes,  what  were  they  among  so  many?  The 
united  families  probably  did  not  consist  of  less  than 
twenty  persons,  exclusive  of  slaves.  It  is  true  that 
*'  the  boys  "  seem  to  have  found  lodgings  in  neigh 
boring  houses,  though  all  were  already  crowded 
with  the  patriot  refugees  from  the  Neutral  Ground 
and  the  upper  river  counties  —  refugees  of  every 
age  and  rank,  and  in  great  numbers.  Probably  this 
quiet  little  village  will  never  again  be  so  densely 
populated  as  it  was  during  the  eventful  months 
of  the  last  third  of  the  year  of  Burgoyne's  surrender. 
In  September  of  that  year  all  things  were  looking 
dark  enough  for  the  patriot  cause.  Burgoyne  and 
his  dreaded  Indian  allies  were  threatening  from  the 
north.  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  working  up  toward 
Burgoyne  from  New  York,  had  intended  to  form  a 
juncture  with  him.  Sir  Henry  had  sent  up  the 
Hudson  a  band  of  one  thousand  men  under  Gen 
eral  Vaughan  —  a  name  long  afterward  held  in 
abhorrence  from  New  York  to  Albany.  This 
band  did  some  gallant  fighting  in  the  capture  of 
Forts  Montgomery  and  Clinton,  and  some  good 
work  for  their  side  in  removing  the  chains  and 
booms  which  General  Putnam  had  caused  to  be 
stretched  across  the  river  to  impede  navigation; 
but  beyond  these  things  it  "  accomplished  nothing 
save  a  good  deal  of  safe  and  cautious  marauding." 


This  included  the  burning,  pillaging,  and  in  far 
too  many  cases  the  murder  of  the  defenseless. 

In  those  days  war  was  never  undertaken  as  a 
philanthropic  enterprise,  and  that  boats  and  other 
means  of  transportation,  as  well  as  mills  and  stores 
of  all  sorts,  should  be  destroyed  was  to  be  expected  : 
but  when  village  after  village,  however  small,  stra 
tegically  unimportant,  or  utterly  incapable  of  resis 
tance  each  might  be,  was  given  up  to  relentless 
pillage  and  then  burned,  great  was  the  crop  of  bit 
ter  feelings  sown,  to  be  reaped  by  the  loyalists 
when  the  fortunes  of  war  eventually  turned  against 
them,  especially  as  it  was  well  known  that  to 
many  a  retired  farm-house  sheltering  only  women 
and  children,  as  well  as  to  more  pretentious  but 
still  equally  unprotected  residences,  the  torch  had 
been  applied  by  the  hands  of  neighboring  Tories 
who  once  had  been  friendly  to  their  owners.  After 
the  war,  whenever  there  was  found  to  exist  the  bit 
ter  spirit  which  cast  the  loyalists  forth  by  thousands 
to  take  an  unwilling  refuge  in  the  wilds  of  Nova 
Scotia  and  New  Brunswick,  it  was  discovered,  upon 
investigation,  that  acts  of  gratuitous  cruelty  had 
many  times  been  committed  by  them,  or  at  least 
by  those  whose  cause  they  had  espoused,  for  in 
this  case,  as  in  all  others,  the  innocent  suffered  with 
the  guilty. 

On  the  Manor  of  Clermont,  or  the  Livingston 
Lower  Manor,  as  it  was  indifferently  called,  near 
Rhinebeck  and  Red  Hook,  on  the  eastern  bank  of 


256 

the  Hudson,  stood  the  fine  residences  of  the  widow 
of  Judge  Robert  R.  Livingston  and  of  her  son, 
Robert  R.,  afterward  known  as  the  first  and  very 
able  Chancellor  Livingston  of  the  State  of  New 
York.  Both  of  these  mansions  had  long  been 
marked  for  destruction,  and  their  inmates  had  re 
ceived  repeated  warnings  to  that  effect,  even  before 
the  general  raid  of  Vaughan's  troops  had  advanced 
from  the  Neutral  Ground  in  the  early  October  of 
1777;  yet  the  families  had  not  left  their  homes 
until  sure  that  the  enemy  was  within  a  few  hours1 
distance. 

At  this  very  time  two  British  officers,  a  wounded 
Captain  Montgomery  and  his  surgeon,  prisoners  on 
parole,  were  being  most  hospitably  entertained  and 
cared  for  in  the  family  of  the  elder  Mrs.  Living 
ston.  Tradition  holds  that  this  Captain  Mont 
gomery  was  a  relative  of  Mrs.  Livingston's  late 
son-in-law,  General  Montgomery,  who  at  an  early 
period  of  the  war  had  fallen  while  leading  the  Con 
gressional  troops  to  the  assault  of  Quebec.  How 
ever  this  might  be,  both  of  the  British  officers 
begged  their  hostess  not  to  forsake  her  home, 
promising  that  their  presence  should  be  a  sure  pro 
tection  to  all  under  the  roof  that  had  so  kindly 
sheltered  them.  It  is  stated  that  Mrs.  Livingston 
refused  to  take  advantage  of  the  offer  on  the 
ground  that  she  could  not  accept  any  favors  shown 
to  herself  unless  the  same  should  be  extended  to 
her  neighbors.  But  it  may  also  have  been  that 


257 

she  did  not  have  sufficient  confidence  in  the  power 
of  her  two  friends  to  accomplish  all  that  their  hearts 
prompted.  It  would  certainly  seem  that  even  if 
the  owners  of  the  house  did  not  choose  to  remain 
and  run  the  risk  of  personal  violence,  the  presence 
in  it  of  the  invalid  British  officer  and  his  physician 
might  have  protected  the  dwelling  from  fire  and 
pillage.  As  this  did  not  prove  to  be  the  case,  the 
supposition  is  that  their  intercessions  were  of  no 
avail. 

Mrs.  Livingston's  flight  was  barely  in  time. 
The  news  of  the  pillagings  lower  down  the  river 
was  not  confirmed  soon  enough  to  enable  the  fugi 
tives  to  make  many  preparations.  Wagons  which 
for  some  weeks  had  been  held  in  readiness  for  any 
such  emergency  were  hastily  laden  with  pictures, 
silver,  and  other  of  the  most  precious  possessions, 
and  with  the  most  necessary  articles  of  furniture, 
clothing,  and  bedding.  Of  the  rest,  as  much  as 
possible  was  hidden  in  a  deep  ravine  but  a  short 
distance  from  the  rear  of  the  house,  underneath 
trees  which  had  been  felled  across  it  some  months 
before.  Above  the  furniture  in  the  cave  thus 
formed  was  scattered  a  thick  covering  of  hay.  The 
entrance  was  on  the  lower  end  of  the  ravine  and 
escaped  the  notice  of  the  marauders.  The  books 
forming  the  fine  library  of  the  late  Judge  Livingston 
were  laid  in  the  dry  basin  of  a  large  fountain  in 
the  front  of  the  house,  which  had  been  allowed  to 
get  dry  from  the  difficulty  and  expense  attending 


repairs  at  this  time.  In  this  basin  the  books  were 
covered  first  with  old  sloop  sails,  and  then  with 
barn-yard  refuse.  A  number  of  these  volumes 
were  afterward  found  in  fairly  good  condition, 
and  some  are  still  preserved  in  the  families  of  rela 
tives  and  friends  to  whom  they  were  given  as 
mementos. 

Mrs.  Livingston  was  the  daughter  of  Colonel 
Henry  Beeckman,  and  her  mother  was  either  a 
daughter  or  a  granddaughter  of  Robert  Livingston, 
Jr.,  nephew  of  the  first  lord  of  the  manor.  From 
all  lines  she  inherited  a  sound  body  and  an  active 
mind.  Both  mentally  and  physically  she  was  of 
heroic  mold.  While  not  in  any  way  foolhardy,  it 
is  related  that  she  knew  not  fear,  and  she  certainly 
was  possessed  of  one  of  the  most  valuable  gifts  in 
the  world,  a  keen  sense  of  humor,  which  is  in 
itself  no  small  aid  to  courage.  It  is  a  tradition 
among  all  branches  of  the  family  that  on  the  morn 
ing  of  this  memorable  flight,  just  as  one  of  the  first 
wagons  was  leaving  the  door,  "  Mother  Margaret " 
burst  into  a  hearty  laugh,  which  broke  out  again 
at  intervals  all  during  the  day  —  the  exciting  cause 
being  the  figure  made  by  her  cook,  a  ponderous 
old  negro  woman,  perched  in  anxious  and  perilous 
importance  on  the  top  of  a  hastily  packed  load 
of  provisions  and  kitchen  utensils,  and  pointing 
her  orders  to  her  grandson,  who  was  the  acting 
charioteer,  by  wild  thrusts  of  a  long-handled  toast 
ing-fork,  which  by  good  fortune  rarely  hit  its 


259 

mark.  The  situation  was,  of  course,  funny  enough, 
but  most  of  us  wait  until  after  all  danger  is  past 
before  taking  a  proper  sense  of  the  ludicrous. 

Mr.  Charles  H.  Hunt,  in  his  generally  so  accu 
rate  as  well  as  interesting  memoir  of  this  Mrs. 
Livingston's  youngest  son, — in  later  years  the  cele 
brated  Governor  Livingston  of  Louisiana, —  states 
that  the  destination  of  the  party  was  "  Salisbury, 
in  Berkshire  County,  Massachusetts."  Salisbury 
is  in  Connecticut,  being  the  northwesternmost 
corner  of  that  little  State,  where  the  blue  Berk 
shire  Hills  smilingly  refuse  to  acknowledge  that 
they  ever  have  borne  allegiance  to  any  other 
commonwealth. 

The  house  in  which  the  fugitive  family  was  to 
take  up  its  temporary  abode  stood  very  close  to 
the  boundary  line  of  Sharon  township,  and  was 
still  capable  of  being  made  into  a  fine  residence 
thirty-five  years  ago.  It  is  melancholy  to  think  that 
after  remaining  unoccupied  for  many  years,  being 
used  in  the  meantime  as  a  barn  for  hay,  it  has  been 
neglected  and  despoiled  until  it  is  now  but  a  disman 
tled  ruin.  As  I  remember  it  in  my  girlhood,  the  old 
mansion  was  a  remarkably  fine  specimen  of  the  best 
sort  of  our  colonial  architecture.  It  was  built  of 
stone  and  brick,  of  two  stories  and  an  attic  above  a 
spacious  basement,  a  part  of  which  probably  served 
as  a  cellar,  and  the  rest  for  slave  quarters,  as  was  the 
case  in  other  houses  of  similar  construction  and 
date.  At  the  front  and  rear  of  the  second  story 


260 


dormer  windows  were  set  in  the  sides  of  the  pic 
turesque  hipped  roof.  On  each  side  of  the  cen 
ter  of  a  wide  hall,  which  traversed  the  house  from 
front  to  rear,  massive  chimneys  ran  up  above  the 
peak  of  the  roof.  The  fireplaces  did  not  open  into 
the  hall,  but  into  the  two  big  square  rooms  on  the 
south  side  and  the  one  long  room  on  the  north, 
which  is  still  called  the  ball-room.  The  broad  hall 
was  beautifully  wainscoted,  and  wa£  adorned  by  a 
staircase  which  in  its  proportions  was  once  a  de 
light  to  the  artistic  eye.  The  ceilings  of  the  first 
floor  were  high  for  that  day,  between  ten  and  eleven 
feet,  if  my  memory  serves.  All  the  rooms  were 
large,  finely  proportioned,  and  admirably  lighted 
by  broad  and  deep  windows.  The  ample  fireplaces 
were  surmounted  by  carefully  finished  mantel 
pieces  of  wood.  I  think  that  all  the  principal 
rooms  were  wainscoted,  and  I  am  sure  that  the 
window-  and  door-casings  were  of  finely  simple 
designs.  The  doors  themselves  were  well  paneled, 
thick,  and  strong,  hung  by  the  long-reaching  hinges 
of  wrought-iron  which  add  so  much  to  picturesque 
effect.  When  I  saw  them  these  had  all  been  dis 
figured  with  paint,  but  my  father  has  told  me  that 
in  his  youth  the  woodwork,  of  the  parlor  at  least, 
was  of  some  polished  hard  wood,  he  thought  that 
of  the  cherry. 

Probably  not  even  the  house  she  had  left,  though 
that  was  held  to  be  fine  in  its  day,  was  either  finer 
or  more  spacious  than  this  mansion  in  which  Mrs. 


26 1 


R.  R.  Livingston  and  her  family  now  found  shel 
ter.  The  house  had  been  built  by  a  Mr.  Swift,  by 
whom  it  had  been  sold  to  one  of  the  Livingstons  not 
very  long  before  the  opening  of  the  war.  It  is  not 
known  precisely  why  Mr.  Swift  had  abandoned  the 
locality,  but  it  is  believed  that  he  was  a  Royalist 
who  had  taken  refuge  in  Boston  in  1775,  whence 
he  had  fled  when  the  British  abandoned  that  city, 
in  company  with  those  Tory  families  who  sought 
refuge  in  Nova  Scotia. 

Just  how  the  house  came  to  be  unoccupied  at 
this  time  is  not  quite  certain.  In  1777  it  belonged 
to  Mr.  Robert  Livingston,  the  third  and,  save  by 
courtesy,  the  last  lord  of  the  Upper  Manor.  He 
appears  to  have  loaned  the  house  to  the  Clermont 
party  at  this  juncture,  and  at  a  later  date  he  occu 
pied  it  himself  at  intervals  for  short  periods.  Some 
things  lead  one  to  suppose  that  he  and  his  family 
may  have  been  here  at  the  same  time  with  the 
Clermont  party.  It  is  uncertain  whether  or  not  all 
of  the  last-named  party  stayed  here  through  the 
entire  winter,  though  some  of  them  are  known  to 
have  done  so.  In  the  following  spring  we  find  that 
Mrs.  R.  R.  Livingston,  with  a  fine  confidence  in  the 
bright  destinies  of  the  struggling  colonies,  began  to 
rebuild  her  house  at  Clermont.  After  the  beginning 
of  the  summer  of  1778  the  house  in  Salisbury  was 
occupied,  more  or  less  steadily,  until  after  the  close 
of  the  war,  by  the  family  of  Robert  Cambridge 
Livingston,  the  son  of  Robert  of  the  Upper  Manor. 


262 


I  am  here  reminded  that  to  readers  not  familiar 
with  the  subject,  so  many  Roberts  among  the 
Livingstons  may  be  confusing.  Besides  the  five 
Robert  Livingstons  mentioned  in  this  chapter, 
there  were  probably  not  less  than  a  dozen  more  (of 
all  ages),  only  to  be  distinguished  from  one  another 
by  their  middle  names,  residences,  and  titles.  The 
same  was  true  of  the  Gilberts,  and  to  nearly  the 
same  extent  of  the  Johns  and  Henrys. 

The  life  led  by  the  refugees  was  both  sad  and 
joyous.  On  the  one  hand,  all  of  them  had  suffered 
from  loss  and  grief,  and  were  never  free  from  anxi 
ety  in  regard  to  the  possible  fate  of  the  dear  ones 
in  more  exposed  situations  than  their  own.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  lives  of  all  were  necessarily  too 
laborious  to  leave  room  for  idle  repinings.  Save 
for  boys  and  old  men,  there  were  few  white  males 
left  in  this  peaceful  region.  It  is  on  record  that 
the  stated  business  meetings  of  the  Congregational 
Society  in  Sharon  were  adjourned  all  through  the 
autumn  of  this  year,  "by  reason  yt  ye  great  num 
ber  of  men  in  ye  service  of  ye  Country  left  too  few 
Members  at  home."  Yet  the  daily  needs  of  a  large 
family,  accustomed  to  every  luxury  of  the  time, 
were  not  less  pressing  than  if  there  were  no  stress 
of  war. 

It  is  traditionally  related  of  Mrs.  Livingston  and 
her  daughter,  Mrs.  Montgomery,  that  they,  with 
the  aid  of  some  of  the  female  slaves,  acted  as  their 
own  coachmen  and  hostlers  during  their  stay  in 


263 

this  region,  in  order  that  their  men-servants  might 
have  more  time  to  spend  in  grinding  meal  for  daily 
use,  and  in  keeping  the  fireplaces  supplied  with 
wood.  Besides  this,  the  Clermont  party  joined  in 
all  the  patriotic  labors  in  which  the  Sharon  ladies 
were  constantly  engaged.  Be  it  remembered  that 
stockings  for  the  army  could  not  be  purchased  in 
sufficient  quantities,  and  love  must  be  trusted  to 
supply  the  want.  Spinning  yarn  and  knitting 
stockings,  preparing  bandages  and  scraping  lint, 
filled  every  patriotic  woman's  every  moment  that 
could  be  spared  from  the  daily  cares  of  her  family  — 
multitudinous  cares  of  which  we  now  know  little. 
Yet  pleasure  was  mingled  with  them  all.  Our 
great-grandmothers  were  as  genial  and  as  lovable 
as  the  least  burdened  of  their  granddaughters. 

Early  in  November,  1777,  began  the  husking 
bees.  A  series  of  them  was  held  in  the  biggest 
bam  which  had  then  been  erected  in  Sharon  or  its 
vicinity.  It  belonged  to  Captain  Simeon  Smith, 
M.D.,  a  physician  whose  military  title  was  due  to 
service  in  the  campaign  of  1776,  on  Long  Island, 
and  in  the  country  around  New  York,  under 
General  Washington.  This  barn  was  taken  down 
in  my  childhood,  and  I  can  just  remember  its  wide 
threshing-floor,  upon  which  horses  had  in  the 
olden  days  been  used  to  tread  out  the  grain,  and 
which  was  so  long  that  five  loaded  hay-wagons, 
with  horses  attached,  could  stand  in  line  without 
difficulty. 


264 

It  was  on  this  capacious  threshing-floor  that 
many  of  the  husking  frolics  were  held.  As  soon 
as  the  early  November  darkness  had  fallen,  the 
huskers  gathered  from  far  and  near.  To-night  it 
might  be  for  Colonel  Canfield's  corn  which  had 
been  brought  here  to  be  husked.  He  was  with 
the  army  of  Gates,  and  his  neighbors  would  help 
both  the  colonel's  family  and  their  country  in  this 
humble  way.  Another  night  it  might  be  that  of 
some  other  patriot  who  was  absent  in  the  service 
of  his  country.  It  was  a  rule,  unwritten  but  inflex 
ible,  that  the  planting  and  the  harvests  of  the  ab 
sent  soldiers  must  take  the  precedence  of  those 
who  remained  at  home. 

Before  leaving  their  houses  all  the  huskers, 
many  of  whom  had  considerable  distance  to  come, 
had  partaken  of  as  good  a  meal  as  their  circum 
stances  would  permit,  and  all  were  very  warmly 
wrapped.  Good  fires  were  kept  burning  in  the 
wide  fireplaces  of  Dr.  Smith's  large  stone  mansion, 
and  to  them  the  huskers  often  resorted,  each  in 
turn,  and  the  work  itself  was  warming  when  briskly 
done ;  but  the  nights  were  cold.  The  toil  was 
made  as  pleasurable  as  possible  by  songs  and  story 
telling,  but  the  needs  were  too  urgent  to  permit  of 
loitering  over  it.  Men  and  women,  bond  and  free, 
boys  and  girls,  "  quality "  and  "  commonalty," 
natives  and  refugees,  all  toiled  together  and  with 
equal  cheer  and  earnestness. 

After  the  evening's  task  was  done  and  all  had 


265 

^^UFOt 

adjourned  to  the  house,  the  different  social  grades 
sorted  themselves  apart  and  each  "  went  to  his  own 
place."  In  the  broad  and  high  basement  were  the 
slave  quarters,  where,  in  front  of  blazing  logs  in 
wide  fireplaces,  they  roasted  potatoes  in  the  ashes, 
and  partook  of  apples,  nuts,  and  cider,  and  after 
ward  were  allowed  to  dance  until  their  masters 
summoned  them  to  start  for  home.  In  the  great 
kitchen,  in  whose  fireplace  an  ox  might  have  been 
roasted  whole,  another  set  enjoyed  themselves  in  a 
similar  manner;  and  in  the  generous  dining-room, 
where  a  big  fireplace  piled  high  with  logs  of  cord- 
wood  length  filled  the  room  with  fragrance, 
warmth,  and  cheer,  still  another  and  probably  more 
sumptuous  repast  was  served. 

After  the  supper,  reels  and  contra-dances,  where 
the  feet  beat  merrily  to  the  entrancing  strains  of 
the  still  traditionally  remembered  "  Caius  Tite's  " 
fiddle,  gave  a  sportive  finish  to  an  evening  which, 
after  all  was  done,  had  not  been  a  long  one,  for  all 
must  be  up  and  toiling  again  by  daybreak  or  be 
fore.  All  the  manor  ladies  and  boys,  as  well  as 
their  servants,  took  a  part  as  often  as  possible  in 
these  pleasurable  toils.  So  did  the  city  divines 
who  shared  their  retreat,  as  well  as  the  resident 
parson,  though  it  was  thought  to  be  etiquette  for 
them  to  retire  to  the  parlors  immediately  after  the 
feast,  that  the  dance  might  the  more  speedily  be 
gin  without  the  restraint  of  their  presence. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

A   LITERARY   CLUB   IN    1779-81 


v» 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

A   LITERARY    CLUB 
IN  1779-81. 

The  "  Clio." 

Two  Diaries. 

The  Sharon  Literary 

Club. 

Canfield.     Spencer. 

News  of  Victory. 

Tailors  and  Clothes. 

Chancellor  Kent. 

Noah  Webster. 

Holmes  the  Historian. 


o  °QoO°  a  °QoO°  o 
ooo 


^>C}o£}  WHETHER  Iiterai7  clubs  were 
c^  °w*w*r  O    mon    thing5    during    our    Revolu- 
0  0     tionary     War,     there     are     small 

means  of  knowing.  The  mere 
fact  that  but  few  traces  exist 
does  not  prove  that  there  may  not  have  been  at 
least  one  in  every  township,  both  then  and  for 
many  years  before,  though  the  supposition  would 
be  against  such  a  conclusion.  So  great  has  been 
the  loss  of  old  papers  from  fires,  removals,  and  even 
wanton  destruction  on  the  part  of  heirs  who  should 
have  known  better,  that  the  wonder  is  rather  that 
we  know  anything  of  the  private  and  social  life  of 
the  colonial  and  Revolutionary  periods  than  that 
we  know  so  little. 

In  our  old  garret,  filling  a  portmanteau,  and 
perhaps  left  just  as  they  were  hastily  stuffed  into 
it  by  a  young  Yale  College  graduate  in  1784,  when 
he  was  quitting  the  college  dormitory  for  the  last 
time,  was  found  a  motley  collection  of  letters,  es 
says,  translations,  notes  of  lectures,  and  accounts  of 
expenditures.  Most  interesting  of  all,  for  our  pres 
ent  purpose,  are  two  diaries  and  three  odd  copies 

269 


of  a  manuscript  publication  edited  by  the  young 
collegian's  sister,  Juliana  Smith. 

"  The  Clio,  a  Literary  Miscellany,"  was  legibly 
written  in  the  script  of  different  hands.  The  ink 
is  still  of  an  excellent  black.  The  large,  coarse- 
textured  sheets  of  foolscap  are  ruled  down  the 
center  of  each  page  to  form  two  columns,  and  the 
several  sheets  are  tied  together  by  cords  of  braided, 
homespun,  unbleached  linen  thread.  The  three 
numbers  are  respectively  dated:  "December  loth, 
1780,"  "January  30th,  1781,"  and  "  October,  1781." 
They  contain  odes,  essays,  proverbs,  puzzles, 
sketches,  and  jokes  —  many  of  the  latter  being  of  a 
local  coloring  that  has  not  stood  the  test  of  age. 
Most  of  the  contents,  particularly  the  sketches, 
would  compare  favorably  with  the  larger  part  of 
the  printed  literary  matter  of  the  periodicals  of  the 
day.  It  is  especially  notable,  considering  the  inter 
est  in  polemics  which  characterized  the  period, 
that  we  find  no  reference  to  theological  opinions. 

In  the  same  package  with  these  manuscript 
magazines  were  several  small  books  of  a  diary  kept 
by  the  brother  in  college  for  the  benefit  of  the 
home  circle,  and  a  larger  number  of  little  books 
of  the  same  sort  kept  by  Juliana,  that  her  "Bro 
ther  Jack  "  might  be  informed  from  time  to  time, 
as  opportunity  for  transmission  should  serve,  of 
the  small  happenings  of  home  life.  From  both  of 
these  simple  diaiies  I  hate  gleaned  many  most  in 
teresting  details  of  family  and  of  college  life,  but  it 


271 


is  principally  from  Juliana's  lively  pages  that 
have  been  gathered  the  particulars  of  the  literary 
club. 

Juliana  seems  to  have  had  an  especially  strong 
love  both  for  hearing  the  ancestral  traditions  and 
for  committing  them  to  paper.  Within  the  last 
eight  or  nine  years  my  mother  has  told  me  that 
she  had  often  heard  her  husband's  grandfather  — • 
the  "  Brother  Jack  "  of  the  diary  —  state  that  his 
mother  and  his  sister  Juliana  were  the  most  intel 
lectual  and  the  wittiest  women  whom  he  had  ever 
known  during  a  long  life  of  social  intercourse  with 
the  best  society  which  our  Union  then  afforded. 
They  were  considered  especially  good  as  narrators, 
and  "  to  have  coaxed  either  of  them  into  telling  a 
tale  was  to  have  provided  the  finest  sort  of  an  en 
tertainment  for  a  winter's  evening."  Of  the  cor 
rectness  of  this  filial  and  fraternal  judgment  there 
is  abundant  evidence  in  the  pages  of  both  Juli 
ana's  diary  and  of  the  "  Clio."  The  introduction, 
"  Mamma  says,"  is  rarely  prefixed  to  anything  that 
is  unworthy  of  perusal  both  for  its  own  sake  and 
for  the  way  in  which  it  is  told,  and  our  Julian's 
signature  is  always  something  equally  good. 

From  the  diaries  we  learn  that  the  "  Clio  "  was 
issued  bimonthly  with  a  praiseworthy  regularity, 
though  often  the  numbers  could  not  be  sent  to 
New  Haven  until  several  had  accumulated.  A 
"  post-rider  "  was  supposed  to  traverse  the  distance 
between  Poughkeepsie  and  Hartford  one  week,  and 


return  the  next,  taking  in  the  towns  of  Pleasant 
Valley  and  Amenia  in  the  State  of  New  York,  and 
of  Sharon  and  Salisbury  and  perhaps  others  in  Con 
necticut  on  his  way;  but  very  often,  for  one  reason 
or  another,  he  skipped  a  week  or  two,  or  more.  The 
deep  snows  of  the  winters  do  not  seem  to  have  so 
frequently  interfered  with  his  progress  as  did  the 
heavy  freshets  and  fathomless  mud  of  the  springs  and 
autumns.  Probably  from  Hartford  to  New  Haven 
the  highways  were  kept  in  better  order,  for  be 
tween  these  points  the  "Post "  was  much  more  reli 
able.  There  was  also  a  regular  post  from  Litchfield 
to  New  Haven,  but  the  former  place  was  twenty 
miles  of  bleak  hill  riding  from  Sharon.  For  all 
these  reasons  advantage  was  always  taken  of  every 
private  means  of  conveying  letters.  In  the  many 
thousands  of  letters  dated  prior  to  1820,  which  I 
have  examined,  there  may  be  found  almost  as  many 
references  to  the  unreliability  of  the  post  and  the 
superior  trustworthiness  of  private  hands.  Indeed, 
important  letters  were  retained  for  weeks  awaiting 
the  convenience  of  some  traveling  friend  "  rather 
than  to  trust  the  Post." 

Perhaps  the  disappearance  of  so  many  copies  of 
the  "  Clio  "  is  due  to  the  precarious  means  of  trans 
portation,  but,  in  view  of  the  scarcity  of  printed 
periodicals,  it  is  more  likely  that  when  the  little 
papers  were  received  by  "  brother  Jack  "  they  were 
passed  from  hand  to  hand  until  they  were  worn  out 
or  K  t.  The  three  surviving  numbers  —  "  One," 


273 

"Four,"  and  "Nineteen"  —  had  been  carefully 
mended  to  prevent  them  from  falling  to  pieces. 

From  the  "  Exordium  "  on  the  first  page  of  "  No. 
One  "  it  appears  that  "  The  Sharon  Literary  Club 
was  founded  in  January,  1779,  the  Rev.  Cotton  M. 
Smith  being  Chairman  and  Mr.  John  C.  Smith 
["brother  Jack  "]  being  Secretary."  The  design 
of  the  club  was  "  to  promote  a  taste  for  the  study  of 
Belles  Lettres  and  of  Logick,  and  to  gain  some  skill 
in  the  useful  Freeman's  Art  of  Debate."  The 
stated  meetings  of  the  club  were  to  be  "  held  on 
every  Monday  evening  through  the  Year,  save  from 
May  first  to  October  first,"  during  which  months  it 
may  be  supposed  that  time  for  such  pursuits  could 
not  be  well  spared  from  the  pressing  duties  of 
an  agriculture  conducted  without  steam-plows, 
wheeled  harrows,  corn-planters,  cultivators,  mow 
ing-machines,  horse-rakes,  reapers  and  binders, 
tedders  and  threshing-machines,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  numberless  other  implements  to  which  we  are 
now  so  accustomed  that  we  forget  that  Noah  did 
not  find  them  waiting  for  him  when  he  emerged 
from  the  ark. 

From  the  first  the  "Sharon  Literary  Club" 
seems  to  have  found  favor  in  the  little  township  of 
its  birth,  and  had  continued  its  regular  meetings 
from  January,  1779,  to  May,  1780,  with  so  much 
advantage  that  by  the  time  for  their  resumption, 
the  first  Monday  in  the  following  October,  it  was 
"determined  to  establish  The  Clio  so  that  the 

18 


274 

talents  of  the  Club's  members  might  be  cultivated 
in  writing  as  well  as  in  speech."  To  its  columns 
each  club-member  was  "  expected  to  make  at  least 
one  contribution  in  every  second  or  third  number." 
A  lawyer  named  Canneld  (first  name  illegible), 
Mr.  Ambrose  Spencer,  and  Miss  Juliana  Smith 
were  named  as  those  "  to  whom  all  essays  intended 
for  insertion  in  these  columns  should  be  submitted 
for  due  consideration";  but  by  the  time  that  the 
next  surviving  paper  was  issued,  Juliana's  name 
appears  alone,  although  the  two  others  continued  to 
contribute.  "  Mr.  Spencer,"  at  this  time  a  lad  of 
about  fifteen  years,  afterward  married  a  daughter  of 
Judge  Canfield,  and  became  a  justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  State  of  New  York. 

Each  issue  of  the  "  Miscellany  "  was  read  aloud 
at  the  meeting  of  the  club  next  after  the  paper's 
date,  and  as  "  there  was  much  lively  comment  on 
each  article,"  it  is  probable  that  the  contents  of  the 
"Clio"  formed  the  chief  topic  of  the  evening,  after 
the  stated  reading  of  selected  portions  from  certain 
books  which  the  club's  members  were  supposed  to 
have  been  perusing  in  their  own  homes  during  the 
intervening  days.  It  is  interesting  to  know  that 
some  of  these  selections  were  translations  from 
Caesar's  "  Commentaries,"  made  by  Juliana's 
brother  ;  from  Plutarch's  Life  of  Hannibal,  made 
by  the  parson  and  the  schoolmaster;  and  from 
Fenelon's  "  Telernaque,"  made  by  Mrs.  Smith  and 
Juliana.  These  translations  were  subject  to  criti- 


cism  from  the  club's  members,  and  on  one 
occasion,  when  the  learned  Dr.  Bellamy  of  Bethle 
hem,  Connecticut,  was  visiting  at  the  parsonage, 
there  would  seem  to  have  been  a  good-natured 
but  rather  lively  sort  of  a  discussion  between  the 
two  divines  and  the  schoolmaster  concerning  the 
proper  rendering  of  certain  disputed  passages  in 
Plutarch.  At  least,  Juliana  reports  that  "  they 
became  as  heated  over  a  Greek  word  as  if  it  were 
a  forge  fire." 

The  alternate  meetings  of  the  club  were  mainly 
debating  societies,  in  which  old  and  young  men 
took  part  as  debaters,  and  old  and  young  women 
as  listeners,  while,  in  accordance  with  a  resolution 
unanimously  passed  at  one  of  the  club's  earliest 
meetings,  "  all  of  the  women  and  such  of  the  men 
as  were  not  engaged  in  speaking  or  reading  "  were 
"  expected  to  knit  stockings  or  do  some  other  work 
to  help  our  brave  and  suffering  soldiers  in  their 
desperate  struggle  to  gain  the  Liberty  of  our  Na 
tive  Land."  Whether  shoemaking  formed  one  of 
the  patriotic  industries  pursued  during  these  literary 
evenings  I  do  not  know,  but  presume  so,  for,  from 
another  source,  I  have  found  that,  beginning  with 
the  winter  of  1777,  and  onward  during  the  war, 
the  men  of  many  Connecticut  villages,  including 
Sharon,  "  had  learned  to  make  shoes  so  that  they 
might  help  the  soldiers  in  the  field.  The  State 
furnished  the  materials,  and  almost  all  the  men  in 
each  township,  from  the  Ministers  down  to  the 


slaves,  spent  their  winter  evenings  in  making  shoes 
for  the  Soldiers."  It  must  be  remembered  that 
shoe  factories  were  then  unknown. 

In  spite  of  her  silent  tongue  and  busy  fingers,  at 
least  one  of  the  young  women  who  were  privileged 
to  listen  to  the  wisdom  of  the  superior  sex  availed 
herself  of  her  opportunities  to  extract  abundant 
amusement  from  the  readings  and  discussions, 
Which  she  reported  for  the  benefit  -of  her  brother 
and  his  classmates,  always  good-naturedly,  but 
sometimes  keenly  criticizing,  and  in  a  few  instances 
even  caricaturing  the  speakers  with  an  untrained 
but  clever  pencil. 

It  is  a  singular  fact  that  neither  in  Juliana's 
diary,  nor  in  that  of  her  brother,  nor  in  the  surviv 
ing  numbers  of  the  "  Clio,"  is  there  much  mention 
of  the  war  then  so  actively  progressing.  Yet 
Sharon  was  intensely  patriotic,  and  had  furnished 
what  was,  proportionately,  a  large  contingent  to 
the  Continental  forces,  while  the  club's  president 
had  been  a  chaplain  in  the  Northern  army  until 
disabled  by  a  camp  fever,  and  several  of  the  most 
active  of  the  club's  members  had  been  officers  and 
privates  in  the  patriotic  armies  for  longer  or  shorter 
terms  before  1780,  and  after  that  date  still  others 
took  their  places.  The  chief  exception  to  this 
ignoring  of  what  must  have  been  the  subject  of 
first  interest  in  the  hearts  of  all  is  Juliana's  exulta 
tion,  in  April,  1780,  over  the  "sure  news,"  which 
then  had  but  just  reached  the  little  inland  town, 


277 

of  the  victory  gained  the  preceding  September 
"  by  Captain  Paul  Jones  in  the  little  Bon  Homme 
Richard  over  the  big  British  ship  Serapis.  A  GLO 
RIOUS  VICTORY  for  which  GOD  be  praised  !  "  Per 
haps  the  reason  for  the  silence  on  the  most  vital 
of  all  the  topics  of  the  time  may  be  found  in  this 
very  thing.  With  the  slow  means  of  communi 
cation,  suspense,  long  and  harrowing,  was  inevi 
table.  Was  it  not,  therefore,  wise  to  divert  the 
mind  as  much  as  might  be  while  working,  praying, 
and  hoping  without  cessation  ? 

The  club's  meetings  were  "  always  punctually 
opened  at  half-past  seven  o'clock  in  the  evening 
with  a  short  prayer  for  the  Divine  blessing,"  and 
they  seem  to  have  been,  with  equal  punctuality, 
closed  at  nine.  After  this  refreshments  were  served. 
If  the  meetings  took  place  in  almost  any  other 
house  than  the  parsonage,  the  refreshments  were 
followed  by  an  hour  of  dancing.  The  sprightly 
Juliana  several  times  expresses  her  regret  that,  as 
the  parson's  daughter,  she  was  always  obliged  to 
leave  before  the  dancing  began,  "  tho',  as  you 
know,"  she  once  naively  adds,  "  Papa  does  not 
think  dancing  to  be  wrong  in  itself,  but  only  that 
it  may  be  a  cause  of  offending  to  some." 

From  tradition  and  the  materials  at  hand  we 
may  paint  a  reasonably  correct  picture  of  one  of 
the  meetings  of  this  long  ago  literary  club.  We 
will  suppose  that  it  is  held  at  the  parsonage.  Here 
three  rooms  are  opened  to  the  company  —  the 


parson's  study,  the  family  living-room,  and  the 
kitchen.  In  all  three  great  blazing  logs  of  wood 
are  sending  their  cheerful  heat  and  light  princi 
pally  up  the  broad-throated  chimneys.  The  night 
is  very  cold,  but  the  guests  do  not  feel  its  chill  too 
acutely,  for  the  air  of  the  rooms  is  so  fresh  that  the 
blood  is  well  oxygenated.  The  curtains,  too,  are 
closely  drawn,  and  they  are  not  flimsy  things,  but 
thick  and  heavy,  made  to  keep  the  wind  out,  and 
they  are  drawn  over  doors  as  well  as  windows. 
Such  curtains  are  usually  made  of  a  mixture  of 
linen  and  wool,  homespun,  home-dyed,  and  home- 
woven,  and  were  sometimes  lined  and  quilted. 
In  the  wealthiest  families  curtains  of  flowered  red 
chintz  were  often  hung  on  the  roomward  side  of 
the  heavier  curtains,  and  sometimes,  but  probably 
very  seldom,  they  were  all  displaced  by  imported 
satin-damask  or  damask-moreen,  lined  with  wadded 
and  quilted  silk. 

Even  at  this  late  period  there  would  not  be 
enough  chairs  to  seat  all  the  guests,  for  these,  in 
Juliana's  reports  to  her  brother,  are  often  said  to 
number  more  than  one  hundred;  so  the  forms 
were  brought  from  the  schoolhouse,  and  were  some 
times  supplemented  by  long  planks  laid  from  one 
stool  or  block  of  wood  to  another. 

As  both  the  study  and  the  living-room  commu 
nicated  with  the  kitchen,  which  extended  along 
the  house  at  the  rear  of  both  of  them,  and  a 
speaker  or  reader  standing  midway  of  the  kitchen 


279 

could  easily  be  heard  in  both  of  the  other  rooms,  it 
is  probable  that  here  would  be  the  chosen  position. 
There  would  be  some  finely  dressed  persons 
present,  for  at  this  time  there  were  gentlemen 
and  ladies  of  fortune  and  position  in  this  retired 
spot,  safe  from  war's  alarms,  and  they  would  be 
attired  as  became  their  station ;  but  the  most  would 
be  arrayed  in  clothes  of  home  manufacture,  from 
pocket-handkerchief  to  shoe-tie.  Tailors  were  so 
few  that  well-fitting  coats  and  breeches  must  have 
been  rare.  One  unfortunate  college  student  from 
this  neighborhood  had  placed  the  cloth  for  a  suit 
of  clothes  with  the  local  tailor  in  the  spring,  and 
by  the  time  that  potentate  had  seen  fit  to  finish 
them,  the  garments  had  been  so  far  outgrown 
that  they  had  to  be  passed  over  to  a  younger 
brother;  and  the  same  thing  was  repeated  twice, 
so  that  the  poor  student  must  have  been  agonizing 
in  out-grown  or  out-worn  clothes  for  the  greater 
part  of  his  college  course.  For  this  state  of  things 
there  was  no  help.  The  tailor,  having  no  com 
petitor  within  thirty  miles  in  any  direction,  was 
monarch  of  his  customers.  Storm  and  threaten 
they  never  so  sternly,  they  were  obliged  to  wait 
his  pleasure,  for  they  could  get  no  better  served 
even  by  journeying  long  distances.  The  trade  of 
the  tailor,  however  profitable,  was  despised  in  the 
colonies,  and  few  would  engage  in  it.  Conse 
quently,  during  the  years  preceding  the  war,  the 
larger  part  of  the  wearing  apparel  of  even  wealthy 


280 


men  was  either  imported  from  England,  as  made 
to  order  from  more  or  less  accurate  measurements, 
or  was  of  household  manufacture.  The  same  was 
true  of  much  of  the  dress  of  the  women;  but  in 
their  case  it  would  not  so  greatly  matter,  as  the 
materials  were  so  much  more  pliable,  and  the  cus 
tom  of  wearing  an  abundance  of  lace  trimmings 
on  the  gowns  of  the  young,  and  of  covering  the 
neck  and  shoulders  of  the  elderry  with  crossed 
kerchiefs  or  small  shawls,  concealed  a  multitude 
of  defects.  During  the  war  such  imported  clothes 
as  existed  must  have  been  decidedly  old  in  style, 
but  that  would  have  been  too  universal  to  have 
been  noticeable. 

Gaiety  there  must  have  been  in  plenty.  There 
could  have  been  little  dullness  where  such  mirthful 
spirits  as  Juliana,  her  sister  Elizabeth,  and  their 
mother  were  the  leaders,  and  this  they  plainly 
were,  notwithstanding  that  they  "  maintained  a 
seemly  silence  while  the  slower  half  of  creation  was 
laying  down  the  law." 

Both  from  the  pages  of  the  "Clio  "  itself  and  from 
those  of  Juliana's  diary,  which,  with  comparatively 
few  breaks,  was  continued  all  through  her  "  brother 
Jack's "  four  years  in  Yale,  there  is  abundant 
evidence  that  the  literary  instinct  in  that  quiet 
village,  then  so  very  remote  from  all  the  centers 
of  activity,  was  by  no  means  confined  to  the  family 
in  the  parsonage,  though  its  manifestations  were 
led  from  there. 


28l 


The  club's  meetings  were  held  in  various  houses, 
from  the  stately  "  Montgomery  House  "  on  the  hill 
dividing  Salisbury  from  Sharon,  which  was  occupied 
by  one  or  another  of  the  numerous  branches  of  the 
Livingston  families  during  nearly  the  entire  war, 
to  the  brick  cottage  occupied  by  the  families  of 
Robert  G.  Livingston  and  the  lately  deceased  Philip 
Livingston,  which  was  on  one  side  of  the  parsonage, 
and  to  the  broadly  spreading  house  of  Judge  Can- 
field  on  its  other  side.  In  all,  seventeen  dwellings 
are  mentioned  as  having  at  one  time  or  another  been 
meeting-places  for  the  club.  Several  of  these  still 
exist,  but  only  three  of  them  are  now  occupied  by 
the  heirs  of  the  then  owners.  These  three  are  the 
"Gay  House,"  more  than  a  mile  above  the  village, 
the  "  King  House,"  at  the  head  of  the  beautiful 
village  street,  and  the  "  Smith  House,"  in  whose 
garret  are  the  papers  from  which  we  quote.  All 
are  in  good  preservation  and  are  fine  specimens  of 
colonial  architecture. 

Juliana  evidently  possessed  a  good  degree  of 
literary  and  editorial  instinct.  From  the  lips  of 
her  two  grandmothers  and  from  her  mother  —  her 
self  too  busy  to  spend  much  time  in  writing  - 
the  young  lady  obtained  many  narratives  of  early 
days  in  the  colonies.  To  several  of  these  she  in 
cidentally  refers,  and  some  of  them  she  wrote  at 
considerable  length  in  her  diary  for  Jack's  benefit. 
From  these  narratives  she  sometimes  made  such 
extracts  as  she  deemed  suitable  for  the  "  Clio," 


282 


though  not  as  often  as  she  (and  we)  would  have 
liked,  because,  as  she  writes  to  Jack  :  "  Judge  Can- 
field  seems  to  think  that  such  things  foster  pride 
and  vanity,  albeit,  Nota  Bene,  I  think  I  do  observe 
now  and  then  a  morsel  of  those  sinful  emotions  in 
himself.  Dost  remember  him,  dear  Jack  ?  " 

From  her  brother  and  his  classmates  Juliana  was 
indefatigable  in  begging  contributions,  whether  in 
prose  or  in  verse,  declaring  that  she  *'  cared  less  for 
moral  reflections  than  for  new  thoughts,"  and  that 
"most  of  all"  she  desired  "news  and  narratives  of 
things  that  one  has  not  already  heard  or  read  a 
thousand  times.  Of  course,"  she  adds,  "  Odes  and 
Sonnets  would  be  very  fine  IF  they  were  poetical, 
but,  Oh,  my  dear  Jack,  I  fear  me  there  is  very  lit 
tle  promise  that  any  of  your  Friends  will  prove  to 
be  Shakespeares  or  Miltons." 

It  must  be  confessed  that  the  most  of  the  sur 
viving  contributions  of  the  young  collegians  are 
decidedly  sophmoric  in  tone,  and  we  cannot  blame 
the  editress,  who  does  not  hesitate  to  inform  Jack, 
by  way  of  consolation  after  some  sharp  criticisms, 
that  she  "  hopes,  nay,  believes,  that  he  will  be  wiser 
by-and-bye  " ;  and,  after  reading  a  certain  halting 
"  Ode  "  by  A.  H.,  we  are  ready  to  confirm  the 
editorial  opinion  that "  your  chum  "  (Abiel  Holmes, 
afterward  author  of  the  laborious  "  Annals  of  Amer 
ican  History,"  but  better  known  as  the  father  of 
Oliver  Wendell  Holmes)  "  is  no  doubt,  as  you 
say,  a  Man  of  Parts,  but  the  Pegasus  he  rides  is  a 


283 

sorry  steed  that  has  lost  his  wings  and  is  badly 
shod."  Of  James  Kent,  afterward  the  justly  cele 
brated  Chancellor  Kent  of  the  State  of  New  York, 
she  says  :  "  Mr.  Kent  does  well,  always  well.  He 
has  thoughts  and  does  not  hide  them  under  a  rub 
bish  heap  of  words  as  H — s  and  S.  B.  do.  .  .  . 
I  wish  that  your  friend  Daggett "  (David  Daggett, 
afterward  United  States  senator  from  Connecticut 
for  several  terms,  and  a  judge  of  high  standing) 
"  would  be  so  obliging  as  to  be  a  more  frequent 
contributor;  he  writes  wittily  and  without  affecta 
tion." 

One  contribution  in  a  surviving  number  of  the 
"  Clio  "  is  signed  "  Noah  Webster."  The  future 
lexicographer  was  then  teaching  a  district  school 
in  Sharon,  and  "  boarding  round,"  receiving  the  ex 
travagant  salary  of  three  dollars  a  month.  This  I 
find  from  the  private  account-book  of  the  acting 
town  clerk,  through  whom  the  stipend  was  paid. 
The  somewhat  hackneyed  moral  lesson  which  Mr. 
Webster  wished  to  convey  was  cast  in  the  dream 
form  which  seems  to  have  appealed  so  strongly 
to  the  fancy  of  the  age,  and  is  a  stilted,  disjointed 
sort  of  thing ;  yet  it  hardly  deserved  the  little  fling 
of  the  young  editress  —  herself,  it  will  be  remem 
bered,  only  nineteen : 

"  Mr.  Webster  has  not  the  excuse  of  youth,  (I 
think  he  must  be  fully  twenty  two  or  three),  but 
his  essays  —  don't  be  angry,  Jack, —  are  as  young 


284 

as  yours  or  brother  Tommy's,  while  his  reflections 
are  as  prosy  as  those  of  our  horse,  your  namesake, 
would  be  if  they  were  written  out.  Perhaps  more 
so,  for  I  truly  believe,  judging  from  the  way  Jack 
Horse  looks  round  at  me  sometimes,  when  I  am  on 
his  back,  that  his  thoughts  of  the  human  race  and 
their  conduct  towards  his  own,  might  be  well 
worth  reading.  At  least  they  would  be  all  his  own, 
and  that  is  more  than  can  be  said  of  N.  W.'s.  .  .  . 
In  conversation  he  is  even  duller  than  in  writing, 
if  that  be  possible,  but  he  is  a  painstaking  man 
and  a  hard  student.  Papa  says  he  will  make  his 
mark;  but  then,  you  know  that  our  dear  Papa  is 
always  inclined  to  think  the  best  of  every  one's 
abilities,  except  his  own  and  MINE,  of  which  last,  I 
grieve  to  say,  his  opinion  seems  to  be  sadly  low. 
Perhaps  that  is  because  every  one  says  I  am  so 
like  him ;  you  know  he  is  ever  repeating  that  self- 
praise  is  no  credit !  I  wish  you  were  at  home,  dear 
Jack,  so  that  I  might  get  a  word  of  flattery  now 
and  then.  I  would  pay  you  back  in  your  own 


coin ! 


A  club-member  whose  contributions  pleased  the 
critical  Juliana  much  better  than  those  of  the 
future  lexicographer  was  a  Mr.  Beecher,  who  was 
in  some  way  related  to  the  subsequently  celebrated 
Rev.  Lyman  Beecher.  He  was  perhaps  a  brother 
of  the  latter's  father.  None  of  his  papers  appear 
in  the  still-existing  numbers  of  the  "  Clio,"  and 


285 

perhaps  he  did  not  write  many,  but  he  was  always 
an  active  member  of  the  club.  "Mr.  Beecher  is," 
says  Juliana,  tk  the  life  of  our  Debates.  Every 
thing  he  utters  is  to  the  point,  forcible,  pungent, 
and  often  so  witty  that  we  are  in  convulsions  of 
laughter.  Papa  says  he  is  one  who  would  become 
great,  an  he  had  the  opportunity.  As  it  is,  though 
he  is  not  great,  he  well  fills  his  lot  in  life  and  is 
somewhat  of  a  power  in  our  little  community." 
In  another  place  she  writes :  "  Mr.  Beecher  was 
on  what  I  conceive  to  be  the  wrong  side  of  the 
question  last  night,  but  I  must  concede  that  his 
remarks  were  full  of  force,  fire  and  persuasion. 
What  a  pity  that  he  could  not  receive  the  advan 
tages  which  are  now  being,  as  it  seems  to  me, 
wasted  on  P.  L.  Jr !  I  believe  that  Mr.  B.  would 
make  a  preacher  of  extraordinary  eloquence." 

On  at  least  one  occasion  there  was  present  a 
young  surgeon  of  the  Continental  troops,  probably 
home  on  leave  of  absence.  Dr.  Wheeler,  after 
ward  of  Redhook  on  the  Hudson,  may  have  been 
drawn  to  Sharon  by  the  charms  of  Elizabeth, 
Juliana's  sister,  whom  he  subsequently  married, 
but  where  they  first  met  does  not  appear.  In  1782 
we  find  in  Juliana's  diary  the  first  mention  of  one 
who  not  long  after  became  the  controlling  influence 
in  her  life.  "  This  evening,"  she  says,  "  our  de 
bates  were  enlivened  by  the  presence  of  a  young 
gentleman  who  came  in  with  Judge  Canfield  and 
his  daughters.  He  is  very  handsome  in  person  and 


286 


courtly  in  manners.  His  remarks  were  received 
with  much  favor,  even  the  carping  P.  L.  being 
heard  to  say  that  Mr.  RadclifFs  speech  l  was  not 
intolerable.'  I  fear  me  he  would  not  have  con 
ceded  as  much  to  one  of  ourselves.  Mr.  L.  never 
has  any  faith  in  home  born  prophets." 

After  this,  Mr.  Radcliff's  name  is  mentioned  a 
good  many  times,  but  —  or  at  least  so  it  seems  in 
the  light  of  future  events  —  with  an  ever-increas 
ing  reticence.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  oc 
casion  which  first  drew  the  young  gentleman  to 
Sharon,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  reason  for  sub 
sequent  visits  was  to  be  found  in  the  attractions  of 
the  handsome  and  quick-witted  Juliana.  Until 
after  the  peace  the  time  was  not  propitious  for 
members  of  the  legal  profession,  and  the  betrothed 
couple  had  to  spend  two  and  perhaps  more  years 
of  happy,  hopeful  waiting.  Almost  immediately 
after  the  peace  young  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Jacob  Rad- 
cliff  began  to  live  in  Albany,  New  York,  where  in 
time  he  became  one  of  the  judges  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  Judicature.  At  a  later  period  they  re 
moved  to  New  York  city,  of  which  Mr.  RadclifF 
was  mayor  for  three  terms  between  1810  and  1818. 

Apparently  from  about  1790  the  RadclifFs  had  a 
summer  home  on  the  banks  of  the  Hudson.  "Chest 
nut  Hill  "  was  not  far  from  Poughkeepsie.  At 
this  home  Mr.  and  Mrs.  RadclifF  entertained  largely 
and  handsomely,  and  the  name  of  the  hostess  is 
often  mentioned  in  domestic  chronicles  of  that  date 
as  that  of  one  of  the  most  charming  members  of 


the  notedly  charming  society  which  gathered  along 
the  banks  of  what  used  then  to  be  so  affectionately 
termed  "  the  River."  The  "  literary  evenings  at 
the  Radcliffs  of  Chestnut  Hill "  are  mentioned  in 
published  and  in  unpublished  letters  written  by 
Chancellor  Kent,  Edward  Livingston,  Chancellor 
Livingston,  and  Mrs.  Janet  Montgomery,  as  stated 
and  delightful  gatherings  where  youth  and  age, 
fashion  and  wit,  met  for  pleasure  and  improvement. 
It  is  not  too  much  to  assume  that  the  idea  for  these 
gatherings  was  taken  from  the  literary  club  which 
had  been  so  great  a  social  and  mental  resource  to 
the  members  of  an  inland  country  parson's  parish 
at  an  earlier  date. 

Tradition  tells  us  that  after  the  marriage  of  the 
young  editress  the  "  Clio  "  ceased  to  appear,  but 
that  the  club  continued  in  active  operation  for 
twenty  or  more  years  later.  I  have  found  no  rec 
ord  of  this,  but  in  a  few  instances  certain  allusions 
in  private  correspondence  countenance  tradition. 

It  has  several  times  been  affirmed  that  the  first 
purely  literary  club  in  the  United  States  was  the  one 
which  was  started  by  Mrs.  Lydia  H.  Sigourney  in 
Hartford,  Connecticut,  in  the  early  years  of  the 
present  century.  Our  records  prove  that  the  one 
in  Sharon  was  very  much  earlier,  and  it  is  probable 
that  others  had  preceded  it;  but  until  some  other 
claimant  shall  arise  we  may  continue  to  give  to 
the  beautiful  little  village  of  Sharon,  Connecticut, 
the  honor  of  being  the  mother  of  literary  clubs  in 
the  United  States. 


CHAPTER   XVIII 

NEW  ENGLAND'S  FESTIVE  DAY 


CHAPTER  XVIII, 

NEW  ENGLAND'S 
FESTIVE  DAY. 


Thanksgiving  in  1779. 

Expedients. 

Abundant  Hospitality. 

Absence  of  Beef. 

Celery. 

After-dinner  Entertain 
ment. 
Two  Oranges. 


I  HE  following  account  of  a  Thanks 
giving  dinner  in  1779  is  given  in 
a  letter  of  Juliana  Smith's,  copied 
by  her  into  her  diary  —  a  praise 
worthy  practice  not  uncommon 
when  letters  were  written  with  care  and  might 
easily  be  lost  in  transmission.  This  letter  was 
addressed  to  its  writer's  "Dear  Cousin  Betsey." 
Who  the  latter  may  have  been  I  do  not  know, 
but  presume  that  she  was  a  daughter  of  the  Rev 
C.  M.  Smith's  elder  brother  Dan. 

After  the  usual  number  of  apologies  for  delay  in 
writing,  Juliana  proceeds : 

"When  Thanksgiving  Day  was  approaching 
our  dear  Grandmother  Smith  [nee  Jerusha 
Mather,  great-granddaughter  of  the  Rev.  Richard 
Mather  of  Dorchester,  Massachusetts],  who  is 
sometimes  a  little  desponding  of  Spirit  as  you  well 
know,  did  her  best  to  persuade  us  that  it  would  be 
better  to  make  it  a  Day  of  Fasting  &  Prayer  in 
view  of  the  Wickedness  of  our  Friends  &  the  J^ileness 
of  our  Enemies,  I  am  sure  you  can  hear  Grandmo- 

291 


ther  say  that  and  see  her  shake  her  cap  border. 
But  indeed  there  was  some  occasion  for  her  re 
marks,  for  our  resistance  to  an  unjust  Authority  has 
cost  our  beautiful  Coast  Towns  very  dear  the  last 
year  &  all  of  us  have  had  much  to  suffer.  But 
my  dear  Father  brought  her  to  a  more  proper 
frame  of  Mind,  so  that  by  the  time  the  Day  came 
she  was  ready  to  enjoy  it  almost  as  well  as  Grand 
mother  Worthington  did,  &  she,  you  will  remem 
ber,  always  sees  the  bright  side.  In  the  mean 
while  we  had  all  of  us  been  working  hard  to  get 
all  things  in  readiness  to  do  honour  to  the  Day. 

"  This  year  it  was  Uncle  Simeon's  turn  to  have 
the  dinner  at  his  house,  but  of  course  we  all  helped 
them  as  they  help  us  when  it  is  our  turn,  &  there 
is  always  enough  for  us  all  to  do.  All  the  baking 
of  pies  &  cakes  was  done  at  our  house  &  we  had 
the  big  oven  heated  &  filled  twice  each  day  for 
three  days  before  it  was  all  done.  &  everything  was 
GOOD,  though  we  did  have  to  do  without  some 
things  that  ought  to  be  used.  Neither  Love  nor 
(paper)  Money  could  buy  Raisins,  but  our  good  red 
cherries  dried  without  the  pits,  did  almost  as  well 
&  happily  Uncle  Simeon  still  had  some  spices  in 
store.  The  tables  were  set  in  the  Dining  Hall  and 
even  that  big  room  had  no  space  to  spare  when  we 
were  all  seated.  The  Servants  had  enough  ado 
to  get  around  the  Tables  &  serve  us  all  without 
over-setting  things.  There  were  our  two  Grand 
mothers  side  by  side.  They  are  always  handsome 


293 

old  Ladies,  but  now,  many  thought,  they  were 
handsomer  than  ever,  &  happy  they  were  to  look 
around  upon  so  many  of  their  descendants.  Uncle 
&  Aunt  Simeon  presided  at  one  Table,  &  Father  & 
Mother  at  the  other.  Besides  us  five  boys  &  girls 
there  were  two  of  the  Gales  &  three  Elmers,  be 
sides  James  Browne  &  Ephraim  Cowles.  [Five 
of  the  last-named  seven  were  orphans  taught  and 
in  all  ways  provided  for  by  Parson  &  Mrs.  Smith.] 
We  had  them  at  our  table  because  they  could  be 
best  supervised  there.  Most  of  the  students  had 
gone  to  their  own  homes  for  the  week,  but  Mr. 

Skiff  &   Mr. [name   illegible]  were  too  far 

away  from  their  homes.  They  sat  at  Uncle 
Simeon's  table  &  so  did  Uncle  Paul  &  his 
family,  five  of  them  in  all,  &  Cousins  Phin 
&  Poll  [probably  Phineas  and  Apollos  Smith, 
sons  of  Dan].  Then  there  were  six  of  the  Liv 
ingston  family  next  door.  They  had  never  seen 
a  Thanksgiving  Dinner  before,  having  been  used 
to  keep  Christmas  Day  instead,  as  is  the  wont 
in  New  York  Province.  Then  there  were  four 
Old  Ladies  who  have  no  longer  Homes  or  Chil 
dren  of  their  own  &  so  came  to  us.  They  were 
invited  by  my  Mother,  but  Uncle  and  Aunt 
Simeon  wished  it  so. 

"  Of  course  we  could  have  no  Roast  Beef. 
None  of  us  have  tasted  Beef  this  three  years  back 
as  it  all  must  go  to  the  Army,  &  too  little  they 
get,  poor  fellows.  But,  Nayquittymaw's  Hunters 


294 

were  able  to  get  us  a  fine  red  Deer,  so  that  we  had 
a  good  haunch  of  Venisson  on  each  Table.  These 
were  balanced  by  huge  Chines  of  Roast  Pork  at 
the  other  ends  of  the  Tables.  Then  there  was  on 
one  a  big  Roast  Turkey  &  on  the  other  a  Goose, 
&  two  big  Pigeon  Pasties.  Then  there  was  an 
abundance  of  good  Vegetables  of  all  the  old  Sorts 
&  one  which  I  do  not  believe  you  have  yet  seen. 
Uncle  Simeon  had  imported  the  Seede  from  Eng 
land  just  before  the  War  began  &  only  this  Year 
was  there  enough  for  Table  use.  It  is  called  Sel- 
lery  &  you  eat  it  without  cooking.  It  is  very 
good  served  with  meats.  Next  year  Uncle  Sim 
eon  says  he  will  be  able  to  raise  enough  to  give  us 
all  some.  It  has  to  be  taken  up,  roots  &  all  & 
buried  in  earth  in  the  cellar  through  the  winter  & 
only  pulling  up  some  when  you  want  it  to  use. 

"  Our  Mince  Pies  were  good  although  we  had 
to  use  dried  Cherries  as  I  told  you,  &  the  meat 
was  shoulder  of  Venisson,  instead  of  Beef.  The 
Pumpkin  Pies,  Apple  Tarts  &  big  Indian  Pud 
dings  lacked  for  nothing  save  Appetite  by  the  time 
we  had  got  round  to  them. 

"  Of  course  we  had  no  Wine.  Uncle  Simeon 
has  still  a  cask  or  two,  but  it  must  all  be  saved  for 
the  sick,  &  indeed,  for  those  who  are  well,  good 
Cider  is  a  sufficient  Substitute.  There  was  no 
Plumb  Pudding,  but  a  boiled  Suet  Pudding, 
stirred  thick  with  dried  Plumbs  &  Cherries,  was 
called  by  the  old  Name  &  answered  the  purpose. 


295 

All  the  other  spice  had  been  used  in  the  Mince 
Pies,  so  for  this  Pudding  we  used  a  jar  of  West 
India  preserved  Ginger  which  chanced  to  be  left 
of  the  last  shipment  which  Uncle  Simeon  had  from 
there,  we  chopped  the  Ginger  small  and  stirred  it 
through  with  the  Plumbs  &  Cherries.  It  was 
extraordinary  good.  The  Day  was  bitter  cold  & 
when  we  got  home  from  Meeting,  which  Father 
did  not  keep  over  long  by  reason  of  the  cold,  we 
were  glad  eno'  of  the  fire  in  Uncle's  Dining  Hall, 
but  by  the  time  the  dinner  was  one  half  over 
those  of  us  who  were  on  the  fire  side  of  one  Table 
was  forced  to  get  up  &  carry  our  plates  with  us 
around  to  the  far  side  of  the  other  Table,  while  those 
who  had  sat  there  were  as  glad  to  bring  their  plates 
around  to  the  fire  side  to  get  warm.  All  but  the 
Old  Ladies  who  had  a  screen  put  behind  their 
chairs." 

Here  it  may  be  allowed  to  break  in  upon  Juli 
ana's  narrative  to  explain  that  the  hall  in  which 
this  dinner  was  laid,  now  long  used  as  a  kitchen, 
is  a  room  about  thirty  feet  long  from  north  to 
south  and  twenty-two  feet  wide.  A  glazed  door 
and  a  window  open  upon  piazzas  from  each 
end.  On  the  western  side  a  broadly  hospitable 
door  opens  into  the  staircase  hall  of  the  main 
building,  while  in  the  dining-room  itself  another 
flight  of  stairs  ascended  from  the  same  side  to  the 
wing's  chambers.  On  the  eastern  side  is  the  im- 


296 

mense  chimney,  where  once  yawned  a  fireplace  that 
"  would  comfortably  hold  a  full  sled  load  of  eight 
foot  logs."  With  such  a  fire  it  is  no  wonder  that 
the  guests  seated  near  it  were  glad  to  exchange 
places  with  the  others,  who  —  probably  half  freez 
ing  —  were  on  the  other  side  of  the  room.  When 
I  was  about  seven  or  eight  years  old  the  heavy 
ceiling  beams,  darkened  with  age  and  smoke,  were 
hidden  away  from  view  by  a  plaster  ceiling.  I 
pleaded  in  vain  for  the  "  pretty  brown  beams  "  to 
be  left  in  sight,  but  my  grandmother  was  inflexible, 
and  no  doubt,  in  the  interest  of  comfort  for  her 
servants,  she  was  quite  right  to  close  the  drafty 
fireplace  and  lower  the  lofty  ceiling.  Nevertheless 
it  was  a  pity,  and  I  have  never  ceased  to  regret  it. 

"  Uncle  Simeon,"  proceeds  Juliana,  "  was  in 
his  best  mood,  and  you  know  how  good  that  is ! 
He  kept  both  Tables  in  a  roar  of  laughter  with  his 
droll  stories  of  the  days  when  he  was  studying 
medicine  in  Edinborough,  &  afterwards  he  & 
Father  &  Uncle  Paul  joined  in  singing  Hymns  & 
Ballads.  You  know  how  fine  their  voices  go 
together.  Then  we  all  sang  a  Hymn  &  after 
wards  my  dear  Father  led  us  in  prayer,  remember 
ing  all  Absent  Friends  before  the  Throne  of  Grace, 
&  much  I  wished  that  my  dear  Betsey  was  here  as 
one  of  us,  as  she  has  been  of  yore. 

"  We  did  not  rise  from  the  Table  until  it  was 
quite  dark,  &  then  when  the  dishes  had  been 


297 

cleared  away  we  all  got  round  the  fire  as  close  as 
we  could,  &  cracked  nuts,  &  sang  songs  &  told 
stories.  At  least  some  told  &  others  listened. 
Ton  know  nobody  can  exceed  the  two  Grandmothers 
at  telling  tales  of  all  the  things  they  have  seen 
themselves,  &  repeating  those  of  the  early  years 
in  New  England,  &  even  some  in  the  Old  Eng 
land,  which  they  had  heard  in  their  youth  from 
their  Elders.  My  Father  says  it  is  a  goodly  cus 
tom  to  hand  down  all  worthy  deeds  &  traditions 
from  Father  to  Son,  as  the  Israelites  were  com 
manded  to  do  about  the  Passover  &  as  the  In 
dians  here  have  always  done,  because  the  Word 
that  is  spoken  is  remembered  longer  than  the  one 
that  is  written.  .  .  .  Brother  Jack,  who  did 
not  reach  here  until  late  on  Wednesday  though  he 
had  left  College  very  early  on  Monday  Morning 
&  rode  with  all  due  diligence  considering  the  snow, 
brought  an  orange  to  each  of  the  Grand-Mothers, 
but,  Alas !  they  were  frozen  in  his  saddle  bags. 
We  soaked  the  frost  out  in  cold  water,  but  I  guess 
they  was  n't  as  good  as  they  should  have  been." 


CHAPTER  XIX 

A   SNOW-SHOE  JOURNEY 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


A  SNOW-SHOE  JOURNEY. 


A  Blizzard  in  1779. 
Litchfield's  Busy  Days. 

Judge  Tapping  Reeve 
and  Family. 

FromLitchfield  to  Wood- 
bury  on  Snow-shoes. 
Parson  Benedict. 


ROTHER  JACK  "  has  left  among 
his  papers  a  relation,  written  in 
1844,  for  the  benefit  of  his  grand 
children,  in  which  he  refers  to  the 
same  Thanksgiving  day  of  which 
Juliana  wrote,  but  dwells  more  particularly  upon 
the  return  journey  to  New  Haven,  on  which  his 
father  accompanied  him.  He  writes  : 

"After  the  day  of  praise  and  feasting  came  two 
days  of  visiting  pleasantly  among  our  neighbors, 
all  of  whom  made  themselves  very  agreeable  to 
me  as  one  who  had  come  from  a  far  country.  On 
Sunday  there  were  two  services,  which,  I  suppose 
would  now  be  called  very  long,  though  my  Father 
would  never  allow  himself  to  preach  as  long  ser 
mons  as  were  then  customary,  unless  carried  away 
by  his  feelings,  which  sometimes  happened  when 
the  news  from  the  posts  of  danger  was  recent  and 
exciting.  There  was  no  hesitation  about  preach 
ing  political  sermons  in  those  days.  Ministers 
would  have  deemed  themselves  to  have  entirely 
failed  of  their  duty,  had  they  not  expressed  their 

301 


302 

views  in  regard  to  what  was  right  and  wrong  on  pub 
lic  questions  as  well  as  on  any  other.  My  Father 
had  served  one  campaign  as  Chaplain  to  Colonel 
Hinman's  regiment  of  Connecticut  troops  and  re 
turned  invalided ;  but  perhaps  he  served  his  Coun 
try  best  by  staying  at  his  post.  He  worked  hard 
both  in  his  own  harvest  fields  and  in  those  of  his 
parishoners  to  raise  grain  for  the  armies ;  he 
cared  for  the  families  of  those  who  were  at  the 
front,  and  he  helped  to  keep  the  fires  of  patriot 
ism  glowing  by  his  exhortations  from  the  pulpit. 

u  Although  early  in  the  season  the  sleighing  had 
already  been  good  for  a  fortnight,  and  the  snow 
was  again  falling  when  we  set  out  very  early  on 
Monday  morning,  my  Father  and  I,  in  our  big 
box  sleigh,  well  wrapped  in  robes  of  long  wooled 
sheep-skins,  and  drawn  by  two  old  farm  horses, 
not  the  best  because  the  best  had  gone  to  the 
army.  Fine  as  the  sleighing  was  in  the  immediate 
neighborhood  of  Sharon,  we  found  the  roads  badly 
drifted  long  before  we  reached  what  is  now  Ells 
worth.  At  that  point,  only  about  five  miles  from 
home,  we  had  to  leave  our  sleigh  in  the  care  of  one 
of  my  Father's  parishoners,  while  we  pursued  our 
journey  on  horseback.  In  those  days  no  one  trav 
elled  in  any  sort  of  a  vehicle  without  taking  along 
saddles  for  use  in  emergency.  It  was  dark  before 
we  reached  Litchfield  and  the  snow-laden  wind 
was  piercingly  cold. 

"  Judge  Tapping  Reeve,  though  much  younger 


3°3 

than  my  Father,  was  one  of  the  latter's  choice 
friends,  and  it  was  at  his  home  that  by  previous 
arrangement  we  were  to  pass  the  night.  Judge 
Reeve  was  both  a  good  and  a  great  man  as  well  as 
one  of  the  most  eloquent  speakers  who  ever 
adorned  the  Bar  of  his  own  or  any  other  State. 
Five  years  later  than  this  I  was  one  of  the  earliest 
students  in  his  law-school,  started  in  1784,  and 
since  become  so  famous.  From  it  have  been 
graduated  upwards  of  one  hundred  lawyers,  among 
them  being  some  of  our  most  distinguished 
statesmen. 

"  It  was  on  this  delightful  evening,  when  we 
were  all  sitting  round  the  roaring  fire  in  the  broad 
fire-place  of  Mrs.  Reeve's  pleasant  sitting  room, 
and  while  we  were  listening  to  the  elevating  con 
versation  between  Judge  Reeve  and  my  Father, 
that  I  made  up  my  mind  that  the  Law  should  be 
my  profession.  Before  this  time  I  had  hesitated, 
but  now  I  felt  sure  that  an  honest  man  could  do 
as  much  good  in  this  profession  as  in  any  other. 
My  Father  and  the  Judge  fully  coincided  in  senti 
ment,  especially  in  wishing  to  supercede  by  a  bet 
ter  that  portion  of  the  old  English  Common  Law 
which  takes  away  all  property  rights  from  married 
women.  Both  of  them  had  shown  their  faith  by 
their  works.  Both  my  Mother  and  Mrs.  Reeve 
had  inherited  small  fortunes  and  had  been  allowed 
by  their  husbands  to  retain  the  control  of  their  own 
property ;  a  thing  almost  unheard  of  at  that  time  in 


_3°4_ 

cases  where  no  ante-nuptial  settlements  had  been 
made.  The  views  of  both  men  as  I  heard  them 
stated  at  this  time  were  afterwards  clearly  set  forth 
by  Judge  Reeve  in  his  celebrated  pamphlet  on 
4  The  Domestic  Relations.'  This  was  the  first 
voice  ever  publicly  raised  in  our  country,  and  per 
haps  in  any  other,  in  behalf  of  the  property  rights 
of  married  women,  and  attracted  much  attention 
both  favourable  and  unfavourable.  Judge  Reeve 
stood  almost  alone  on  this  point  among  the  law 
yers  of  his  day ;  but  in  his  school  he  made  many 
disciples. 

"  Mrs.  Reeve  also  took  a  part  in  this  discussion 
and  fully  vindicated  her  right  to  do  so  by  the 
intellectual  ability  she  manifested  as  might  be 
expected  from  a  person  of  her  lineage.  Judge 
Reeve  was  always  noted  as  a  model  husband  and 
it  was  no  wonder  with  such  a  wife  as  his.  Mrs. 
Reeve  was  sister  to  Colonel  Aaron  Burr,  and  pos 
sessed  all  the  latter's  great  intellectual  powers  and 
wonderful  personal  attractions  without  one  of  his 
faults.  She  was  nearly  always  in  delicate  health 
which  forced  her  to  lead  a  very  secluded  life,  but 
she  had  every  qualification  to  have  placed  her 
among  those  women  who  have  been  most  noted 
for  goodness,  grace,  beauty  and  wit. 

"  I  seem  to  myself  to  see  her  now  as  she  ap 
peared  that  night.  She  was  still  but  a  young 
matron  and  in  the  full  flush  of  a  beauty  that  was 
less  of  feature  than  of  expression.  I  thought  then 


and  I  think  now,  that  Mrs.  Reeve  was  one  of  those 
women  to  whom  it  is  an  honour  to  any  man  to 
bow  in  deference.  She  had  inherited  the  faculty 
of  close  logic  which  distinguished  her  Grandfather, 
the  great  Dr.  Jonathan  Edwards,  and  the  persua 
sive  grace  of  her  Father,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Burr,  of 
Princeton.  She  was  small  and  slight,  with  a  daz 
zling  complexion,  clear  cut  features  and  deep  gray 
eyes  that  under  any  intellectual  excitement  be 
came  brilliant.  Her  smile  was  irresistible.  At 
least  it  so  seemed  to  me  on  that  first  interview 
when  I  was  but  fourteen  years  of  age.  After 
wards,  during  the  years  that  I  studied  in  Judge 
Reeve's  office  and  had  my  home  in  his  household, 
the  impression  became  fixed,  and  I  believe  it 
was  the  same  with  every  succeeding  student  who 
had  the  privilege  of  being  admitted  into  that 
family  circle. 

"  During  the  night  the  storm  increased  in  vio 
lence  and  in  the  morning  it  was  impossible  to  see 
many  feet  from  the  door  on  account  of  the  whirling 
masses  of  a  snow  so  hard,  dry  and  powdery  that 
it  cut  into  the  face  like  fine  iron  filings.  To  pro 
ceed  on  our  journey  was  clearly  impossible.  Nei 
ther  man  nor  beast  could  long  have  endured  the 
intense  cold  and  the  friction  of  the  icy  snow,  even 
if  it  had  been  possible  for  any  one  to  keep  the  di 
rection  in  the  blinding  storm.  In  traversing  the 
short  distance  from  the  house  to  the  barn  to  attend 
to  the  wants  of  our  animals,  over  a  path  hardly 


306 

more  than  twenty  yards  long  and  partly  sheltered 
by  the  wood-shed,  we  were  almost  blinded  and 
bewildered. 

"  All  that  day  and  far  into  the  night  of  Tuesday 
we  piled  logs  upon  the  kitchen  fire,  for  in  that 
room  alone  was  it  possible  to  maintain  a  comforta 
ble  degree  of  warmth.  Fortunately  there  was 
space  enough  for  us  all  to  sit  without  disturbing 
the  labours  of  the  servants  in  preparing  our  meals. 
As  no  one  could  be  allowed  to  remain  idle  in  such 
times  of  pressing  need,  my  Father  and  I  helped  to 
mould  bullets  for  the  soldiers'  muskets,  while  gen 
tle  Mrs.  Reeve  sat  busily  knitting  on  yarn  stock 
ings  for  their  feet.  The  wind  blew  so  fiercely 
down  through  all  the  other  chimneys  in  the  house 
that  it  was  impossible  to  light  the  fires  in  them. 
It  is  under  such  circumstances  that  characters  are 
displayed  without  disguise,  and  Judge  and  Mrs. 
Reeve  then  seemed,  what  I  afterwards  proved 
them  to  be,  genial,  courteous  and  kind :  making 
light  of  every  difficulty,  and  by  their  hearty 
warmth  of  welcome  and  their  sparkling  wit  mak 
ing  that  day  and  evening  among  the  happiest  rec 
ollections  of  a  lifetime  which  has  held  as  many 
joys  and  as  few  sorrows  as  may  fall  to  the  lot  of 
mortals. 

"  On  Wednesday  the  sun  rose  bright  and  clear 
over  a  dazzling  desert  of  snow.  The  lower  win 
dows  of  most  of  the  houses  were  hidden  beneath 
great  piles  of  drift.  In  some  cases  even  the  second 


3°7 

story  windows  were  hidden,  or  only  visible  through 
openings  in  the  drift  like  the  hooded  bastions  of 
some  icy  fort.  Looking  from  the  garret  windows 
of  Judge  Reeve's  house  as  far  as  the  eye  could 
reach  we  could  see  no  trace  of  road  or  path. 
Fences  and  shrubs  were  obliterated.  Trees,  some 
looking  like  mountains  of  snow  and  some  like 
naked  and  broken  skeletons,  arose  here  and  there. 
And  in  the  village  only  rising  wreaths  of  smoke 
told  that  life  existed  in  the  half  buried  houses. 
The  Meeting  House  spire  was  on  one  side  decked 
by  the  icy  snow  with  fantastic  semblances  of  marble 
statuary  over  which  the  new  long,  black  lightning 
rod  (the  first  one  I  had  ever  seen)  had  been  twisted 
by  the  wind  until  it  looked  like  a  Chinese  char 
acter.  The  Meeting  House,  where  on  Sunday  the 
Rev.  Judah  Champion  thundered  his  rousing  ap 
peals  to  the  patriotism  of  his  congregation;  the 
great  house  for  the  reception  of  military  stores  on 
North  Street,  and  the  Army  Work-Shop,  where 
blacksmiths,  gunsmiths  and  the  makers  of  saddles 
and  harness  were  constantly  working  for  the  troops, 
were  the  only  buildings  which  were  large  enough 
to  serve  as  land-marks  to  any  but  the  natives  of  the 
place  under  this  bewildering  confusion  of  snow. 
The  military  guard  which  was  always  stationed  to 
protect  these  valuable  buildings,  on  this  day  omit 
ted  their  customary  drills  to  take  their  places  in 
the  '  Shovel  Brigade '  which  was  organized  to  dig 
out  the  beleagured  inhabitants.  One  might  sup- 


pose  that  we  were  in  Lapland  or  Iceland,  so  strange 
and  frozen  did  everything  look;  so  vast  seemed 
the  desert  of  snow  which  even  on  a  level  was  found 
to  be  several  feet  in  depth  and  was  everywhere 
covered  with  a  frozen  crust. 

" '  Now  we  shall  have  the  pleasure  of  keeping 
you  for  a  week  at  least,'  said  Judge  Reeve,  heartily 
clasping  my  Father's  hand. 

"  4  Yes,'  said  dear  Mrs.  Reeve,  giving  me  a  kindly 
look,  '  yes,  my  dear  boy,  you  will  not  get  back  to 
your  classes  this  week/ 

"  I  was  both  enchanted  and  miserable.  To  stay 
in  this  beautiful  home  would  be  most  delightful. 
To  lose  the  time  from  my  classes  would  be  almost 
unendurable.  My  Father  settled  the  matter  by 
asking  quietly  if  our  host  could  not  get  us  each 
a  pair  of  snow  shoes. 

"  At  first  our  hosts  treated  this  request  as  a  pleas 
antry,  but  when  they  perceived  that  my  Father 
was  quite  in  earnest  their  dismay  was  amusing. 
The  general  habit  of  using  snow  shoes,  which  at  a 
very  early  period  had  been  adopted  from  the  In 
dians,  had  already  nearly  disappeared,  but  down  to 
a  comparatively  recent  period  there  had  been  a 
few  persons  who  continued  to  use  them  in  places 
where  there  were  no  interruptions  from  fences. 
My  Father,  a  slight  but  sinewy  and  most  athletic 
man,  had  spent  two  or  three  years  of  his  early  life 
as  teacher  in  a  school  which  had  been  recently 
established  for  the  instruction  of  Indians  in  Stock- 


3°9 

bridge,  Massachusetts,  and  there  he  had  joined  in 
all  the  athletic  sports  of  the  natives,  gaining  a  great 
influence  among  them  by  his  prowess  in  running, 
leaping  and  wrestling.  (It  has  nothing  to  do  with 
our  present  purpose,  but  my  descendants  may  like 
to  know  that  the  marks  reached  by  my  Father, 
when  a  student  at  Yale,  for  running  and  standing 
leaps,  were  kept  as  the  highest  attained  by  any 
student  on  the  college  Campus.  No  one  else  had 
been  able  to  reach  the  same  until  I  did  so  in  my 
Senior  year.) 

"  It  was  among  the  Indians  that  my  Father  had 
learned  to  use  the  snow  shoes  with  great  skill  and 
as  much  grace  as  the  unwieldy  things  would 
permit,  but  I  could  never  see  him  or  any 
one  else  on  them  without  an  inclination  to  laugh 
which  was  sometimes  stronger  than  my  filial 
reverence.  But,  as  my  Father  had  a  strong  vein 
of  humour,  he  always  rather  joined  in  my  mirth 
than  rebuked  me  for  it.  Fore-seeing  that  there 
might  be  some  occasion  on  which  this  somewhat 
unusual  accomplishment  might  prove  of  service, 
my  Father  had  taught  me  also  to  become  moder 
ately  expert  in  the  use  of  snow  shoes. 

"  Fortunately  Judge  Reeve  had  stored  away  in 
his  garret,  more  as  a  curiosity  than  for  any  use  that 
he  expected  to  be  made  of  them,  two  pairs  of 
snow  shoes  of  the  finest  Indian  manufacture,  so 
that  we  had  not  to  spend  any  time  in  searching  for 
them,  and  by  nine  o'clock  on  Wednesday  mom- 


310 

ing  we  climbed  out  of  an  upper  story  window  upon 
the  hard  crust  of  frozen  snow  and  started  off  with 
no  other  burden  than  the  light,  but  cumbersome 
snow  shoes  attached  to  our  feet,  and  a  small  roll 
like  a  knapsack,  fastened  to  each  of  our  backs. 

"  I  was  a  boy  of  unusual  strength  for  my  years, 
and  my  Father,  although  a  Parson,  was  remarkable 
for  his  vigor,  but  I  can  assure  you  that  we  were 
both  of  us  thankful  when  at  nightfall  we  reached 
the  little  town  of  Bethlehem  and  the  hospitable 
abode  of  my  Father's  very  dear  friend,  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Joseph  Bellamy.  Although  the  distance  is  a 
little  more  than  ten  miles  as  the  crow  flies,  it  had 
seemed  a  long  journey  and  I  had  never  been  so 
tired  before. 

"  On  Thursday  the  roads  continuing  impassable 
we  could  not  abandon  our  snow  shoes,  though  they 
made  our  ankles  ache  so  that  we  could  hardly 
stand  upon  them.  The  air  was  of  a  clear,  still 
cold  that  would  have  been  severe  if  we  had  not 
been  exercising  ourselves  so  greatly.  Even  as  it 
was  our  dread-naughts  [these  were  caped  coats  of 
exceedingly  thick  homespun  cloth,  belted  around 
the  waist  and  descending  well  below  the  knees] 
were  none  too  warm. 

"  Our  second  day's  journey  on  the  snow  shoes 
was  much  like  the  first,  and  of  about  the  same 
length,  bringing  us  to  Woodbury  and  the  house 
of  the  Rev.  Noah  Benedict  where  we  were  enter 
tained  with  warm  hospitality.  Mr.  Benedict  was 


Ill 

a  peace  making  man  in  his  congregation,  and  his 
gentle  spirit  long  influenced  the  manners  and  the 
actions  of  the  people  of  his  flock.  But  in  public 
matters  he  was  as  war-like  as  any  of  us.  Wood- 
bury,  like  Litchfield,  was  a  place  for  the  collection 
and  storage  of  the  supplies  for  the  patriot  armies. 
Here  we  found  the  streets,  running  each  way  from 
the  Meeting  House,  piled  high  on  either  side  for 
a  hundred  yards  or  more  with  barrels  and  hogs 
heads  of  pork,  beef,  lard  and  flour,  besides  great 
quantities  of  bales  of  blankets,  tents  and  clothing 
for  the  troops.  All  these  now  made  miniature 
mountains  under  the  snow.  Almost  all  the  able 
bodied  male  inhabitants  more  than  seventeen  years 
of  age  were  enrolled  in  the  armies,  and  the  work 
pertaining  to  the  stores  was  carried  on  by  the 
women  and  children  under  the  direction  of  a  few 
old  men.  Many  shoes  were  made  in  this  place  for 
the  troops.  Parson  Benedict  had  himself  been 
taught  to  make  them  that  he  might  assist  in  the 
work.  On  this  evening  the  women  of  the  family 
were  paring  apples  to  dry  for  the  army  use  and  as 
my  Father  and  I  could  not  assist  Mr.  Benedict  and 
the  men  servants  in  shoemaking  we  took  our  part 
in  the  apple  paring.  And  a  very  merry  and  de 
lightful  evening  we  all  had  together,  for  to  work 
with  a  good  will  is  a  sure  road  to  happiness,  let  our 
circumstances  be  as  untoward  as  they  may. 

"  Friday  morning  found  the  temperature  greatly 
modified,  and,  by  the  time  we  had  accomplished 


the  first  five  or  six  miles  of  our  journey  toward 
New  Haven  we  found  ourselves  in  an  evil  case, 
for  the  snow  was  beginning  to  get  wet  and  soft 
and  held  down  the  four  foot  length  of  snow  shoe 
so  that  at  every  step  it  became  harder  to  lift  our 
feet.  Glad  enough  were  we  when  at  last  we 
reached  an  inn  where  the  accommodations  were 
poor  enough,  but  where  we  could  at  least  get  a  lit 
tle  refreshment  for  ourselves  and  wei;e  able  to  leave 
the  snow  shoes  to  await  some  later  opportunity  to 
be  returned  to  Judge  Reeve,  and  to  hire  horses  to 
ride  upon  to  New  Haven.  From  this  point  the 
snow  was  not  nearly  so  deep  and  we  had  but  little 
trouble  in  making,  by  eight  in  the  evening,  the 
eighteen  miles  to  the  house  of  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Daggett,  the  venerable  ex-President  of  Yale 
College ;  which  house  was  almost  a  second  home 
to  us. 

"  Tired  as  I  had  been  the  day  before,  I  found 
myself  still  more  so  to-night ;  but  my  Father 
would  not  allow  me  to  complain,  saying  that  I 
should  never  make  a  soldier  who  could  serve  his 
country,  as  our  soldiers  were  now  doing,  if  I  gave 
out  so  easily.  Never-the-less,  I  observed  that  my 
Father  was  himself  very  lame  for  the  next  few 
days  and  by  no  means  in  haste  to  depart  for  home 
again  as  he  would  otherwise  have  been.  I  have 
never  regretted  the  experience, —  since  no  harm 
save  a  few  days  of  stiff  joints  and  sore  bones 
came  of  it, —  but  I  think  that  my  Mother's  re- 


3*3 

mark  when  she  heard  of  it  showed  much  com 
mon  sense :  — 

" '  A  week  or  two  more  or  less  would  not  have 
spoiled  our  Johnny's  prospects,  and  lung  fevers 
might  have  destroyed  both  your  lives.  /  say, 
leave  Indian  ways  to  Indian  folk.' 

"  '  Never-the-less,'  answered  my  Father,  with  a 
merry  twinkle  in  the  eye,  '  never-the-less,  my  dear, 
I  observe  that  when  you  have  anything  to  do 
you  brook  no  delays  and  you  shirk  no  labour. 
Your  wisdom  seems  rather  to  be  for  others  than 
for  yourself.' 

"My  Mother  shook  her  head  slightly  and 
walked  away,  turning  to  say  over  her  shoulder, — 
*  And  would  you  have  the  Great-granddaughter 
of  Captain  John  Gallup  any  more  timorsome  than 
her  husband?'" 


V*  OK    THK 

UNIVERS: 

CAI 


CHAPTER   XX 

A   NEW   YORK   EVENING   FROLIC 


CHAPTER   XX. 

A    NEW    YORK 
EVENING    FROLIC. 


Mr.  David  Codwise  Tells 

of  an  Evening  at  the 

Rhinelander  Homestead. 

Candles  and  Candle- 

dipping. 

The  Supper. 

The  "  Fire  Dance." 

The  Parting  Cup. 


David  Codwise,  my 
great-uncle  by  his  marriage  with 
0  my  paternal  grandmother's  sister, 
Martha  Livingston,  was  a  boy  of 
sixteen  and  a  student  in  Columbia 
College.  When  he  gave  me  the  following  story 
of  an  evening's  frolic  he  was  about  eighty-two,  in 
an  "  anecdotage "  which  rendered  him  very  in 
teresting  to  at  least  one  of  his  frequent  listeners. 
He  was  a  lifelong  resident  of  his  native  city, 
and  knew  the  history  of  every  important  build 
ing  and  person  in  it,  but  among  all  his  narra 
tives  few  interested  me  more  than  that  of  the 
"candle-dip  frolic." 

Among  the  masses  of  old  papers  in  my  posses 
sion  I  find  no  trace  of  the  use  of  lamps  for  burn 
ing  any  sort  of  oil  previous  to  1760.  This,  of 
course,  does  not  prove  that  they  did  not  exist,  but 
only  that  probably  candles  were  the  chief  illuminat 
ing  power.  In  bills  of  household  supplies  I  find 
always  a  certain  quantity  of  wax  candles,  but  the 
imported  article  at  four  English  shillings  the  pound 
(in  1762)  must  obviously  have  been  kept  for  fes- 

317 


tive  occasions  only.  It  is  probable  that  the  wax 
from  the  combs  of  both  the  wild  and  the  domestic 
bees  was  used  for  home-made  mold  candles,  as  in 
New  England  was  also  the  wax  from  the  green 
and  fragrant  bayberries ;  but  the  main  dependence 
must  have  been  the  tallow  dips,  and  even  these 
could  not  have  been  very  freely  used  by  any  but 
the  well-to-do.  Tallow  candles  were  not  super 
seded  by  wax  even  in  the  Grand  Opera  House  of 
Paris  until  during  the  Regency,  1715-23. 

Candle-dipping  was  one  of  the  employments  of 
every  winter,  and  sometimes  became  an  enjoyment 
also.  The  special  candle-dipping  of  which  my 
uncle  told  was  at  the  home  of  a  certain  Miss 
Rhinelander,  for  whom  he  ever  retained  a  tender 
memory. 

The  scene  was  an  immense  kitchen.  Between 
the  heavy  ceiling  beams,  darkened  and  polished 
by  the  years  of  kindly  smoke,  hung  bunches  of 
dried  herbs  and  of  ears  of  corn  for  popping.  A 
large  portion  of  one  side  of  the  room  was  taken 
up  by  a  fireplace  so  big  that  there  was  space  for  a 
seat  at  each  end  after  piles  of  logs  four  or  five  feet 
in  length  had  begun  to  send  their  blaze  up  the 
wide  chimney  throat.  These  seats  were  stone 
slabs  set  in  the  side  walls  of  the  fireplace,  and- 
as  seats  —  were  only  used  by  persons  who  came 
in  literally  dripping  with  rain  or  melting  snow. 
Usually  the  slabs  were  employed  as  resting-places 
for  things  to  be  kept  hot  without  burning.  Ad- 


3*9 

joining  the  fireplace  was  the  great  brick  oven. 
Over  the  blaze  swung  long-armed  cranes  support 
ing  immense  brass  kettles,  their  outsides  already 
blackening  with  smoke,  although  only  a  few  hours 
earlier  they  had  been  scoured  to  a  dazzling  bright 
ness.  The  floor,  "  as  white  as  a  wooden  trencher," 
was  sprinkled  with  shining  sand.  Mr.  Codwise 
did  not  remember  that  there  was  any  light  be 
yond  that  supplied  by  the  blazing  logs.  The 
whitewashed  walls  were  decorated  with  evergreen 
boughs. 

Down  the  center,  the  longest  way  of  the  room, 
were  two  long  ladders  lying  side  by  side,  sup 
ported  at  either  end  upon  blocks  of  wood  about 
44  chair-seat  high."  Under  each  ladder,  at  intervals 
of  a  foot  or  so  apart,  stood  a  row  of  big  three- 
footed  iron  pots  and  of  footless  brass  kettles  like 
those  over  the  fire.  On  the  floor,  between  the 
pots  and  the  kettles,  were  placed  dripping-pans 
and  other  vessels,  both  to  protect  the  floor  from 
grease  and  to  prevent  waste  of  tallow.  On  either 
side  of  each  recumbent  ladder  was  a  row  of  chairs, 
placed  as  closely  together  as  possible.  Before  the 
merrymakers  were  seated  —  John  by  Molly  and 
Peter  by  Sally  —  big  and  jolly  black  Castor  and 
Pollux  had  lifted  from  the  fire  the  brass  kettles 
full  of  melted  tallow,  and  deftly  poured  their  con 
tents  to  the  depth  of  two  or  three  inches  more  than  a 
long  candle's  length  upon  the  water  with  which  the 
similar  vessels  on  the  floor  were  already  half  filled. 


320 

As  soon  as  the  young  folks  were  seated,  black 
Phyllis  and  Chloe,  dressed  in  butternut  homespun 
with  white  kerchiefs  over  the  shoulders,  and  wear 
ing  red-and-yellow  plaided  turbans,  deftly  handed 
the  candle  rods,  four  or  five  to  each  person.  From 
each  rod  were  suspended  the  wicks  of  twisted  cot 
ton  yarn  which  it  had  been  the  task  of  the  young 
lady  hostess  and  her  friends  to  prepare  during  the 
previous  afternoon. 

The  first  dippings  were  rather  solemn  affairs. 
Much  depended  upon  starting  right.  The  least 
crook  in  the  wick,  if  not  straightened,  insured  a 
crooked  candle;  and  crooked  candles  were 
drippy  things,  burning  unevenly,  and  guttering  in 
a  way  most  vexatious  to  the  good  housewife. 
About  six  wicks  were  upon  each  rod.  They  must 
not  hang  too  closely  together,  or,  like  too  thickly 
planted  trees,  they  would  interfere  with  each  other 
as  they  grew.  They  must  not  be  too  far  apart,  or 
there  would  not  be  room  enough  for  all  to  be 
plunged  evenly  in  the  kettles.  The  wicks  on  each 
rod  were  dipped  carefully  their  entire  length  in 
the  kettle  nearest  to  the  right  hand  of  the  person 
dipping,  the  wicks  necessarily  passing  through  the 
melted  tallow  resting  on  top  of  the  water,  and 
acquiring  with  each  dip  a  thin  layer  of  the  tallow. 
The  tallow  in  the  kettles  was  frequently  replen 
ished,  that  the  wicks  might  never  be  allowed  to 
touch  the  water,  lest  a  spluttering  candle  should 
result.  Candle-dipping  must  not  be  retarded,  and 


321 

it  could  not  be  hurried.  Slowly  the  wicks  were 
immersed  in  the  tallow,  and  then  the  loaded  rods 
were  hung  in  the  spaces  between  the  kettles  and 
over  the  empty  pans  to  allow  the  growing  candles 
to  harden  before  being  dipped  again  and  again 
until  the  proper  circumference  had  been  attained. 

Probably  two  pairs  of  industrious  hands,  having 
six  kettles  between  them,  could  easily  have  com 
pleted  as  many  candles  in  three  hours  as  six  pairs 
could  have  done  under  the  merrymakingconditions; 
but  then,  where  would  have  been  the  fun  of  the 
thing  *?  There  is  an  old  Dutch  proverb  to  the  effect 
that  "life's  employments  are  life's  enjoyments,"  and 
there  is  abundant  proof  that  our  happily  constituted 
Dutch  ancestors  made  enjoyments  of  the  most  pro 
saic  employments.  Certainly  there  was  pleasure 
enough  at  this  candle-dipping  frolic,  in  the  house 
of  a  wealthy  citizen,  and  attended  by  the  youthful 
elite  of  the  little  city  only  one  century  ago.  Their 
present-day  successors  can  get  no  more  at  no 
matter  what  may  be  the  chosen  amusement  of 
the  hour. 

It  is  not  probable  that  candle-dipping  bees  were 
by  any  means  a  usual  festivity  in  or  very  near  New 
York  city  as  late  as  the  latter  part  of  the  eigh 
teenth  century.  Rather  should  it  be  supposed  that 
the  evening  at  the  Rhinelander  mansion  was  a 
revival  of  an  ancient  custom,  just  as  one  occasion 
ally  hears  in  our  day  of  some  fashionable  group  of 
merrymakers  holding  a  corn-husking  bee  in  a  barn 


322 

which  may  be  finer  than  the  dwellings  of  their 
ancestors.  Even  so,  it  is  a  proof  that  when  big 
New  York  was  little  New  Amsterdam,  candle- 
dipping  had  been  one  of  its  recognized  festivities ; 
and  it  is  for  this  reason  that  it  is  here  introduced. 

On  this  occasion  each  swain,  as  well  as  maiden, 
was  provided  with  a  huge  apron  of  checked  linen, 
and  had  full  over-sleeves  of  the  same  material, 
closed  at  the  wrists  and  above  the  elbows  by  draw 
ing-strings,  in  order  that  no  traces  of  soil  might 
afterward  be  found  upon  the  silken  hose  and  the 
fine  cloth  knee-breeches  of  the  young  men,  or  on 
the  soft  hanging,  somewhat  scanty  folds  of  the 
stuff  gowns  of  the  young  women,  or  on  the  linen 
ruffles  and  delicate  laces  which  were  worn  alike  by 
both.  At  such  industrial  gatherings  as  this  vel 
vets  and  silks  were  worn  by  neither  sex,  but  laces, 
being  washable,  were  permitted. 

Thirty-two  couples  took  part  in  that  evening's 
candle-dipping ;  and  if  my  great-uncle's  opinion 
was  trustworthy,  all  the  girls  Avere  beautiful  and 
graceful,  and  all  the  youths  were  gallant  and  hand 
some.  A  portrait  of  Mr.  Codwise  when  a  young 
man  (taken  by  Earle)  shows  him  as  a  very  hand 
some,  dark-eyed  youth.  I  used  often  to  look  up 
from  the  dear  old  face  under  an  ugly  wig,  regard 
ing  me  with  such  kindly  eyes,  to  the  bright-eyed, 
curly-headed  portrait  on  the  wall,  and  could  find 
a  trace  of  resemblance  only  in  the  lines  of  the 
brow  and  the  aquiline  nose  with  its  strong  sug- 


3^3 

gestion  of  a  terminating  hook.  In  the  eyes  of 
youth  there  is  something  incredible  in  so  great  a 
change.  To  the  dear  old  man,  as  he  dwelt  upon 
the  pleasures  and  companions  of  his  youth,  all  of 
them  bore  the  same  charms  as  in  those  happy 
days.  Unfortunately,  I  did  not  record  their  names, 
but  remember  that  there  were  Rutherfords,  Mor 
rises,  Lawrences,  Livingstons,  Gracies,  Stevenses, 
Stuyvesants,  Schuylers,  Evertsons,  Beeckmans, 
Polhemuses,  and  Starrs  among  them,  these  names 
being  impressed  by  associations  of  one  sort  or  an 
other,  while  others  have  escaped  my  memory. 

Of  all  who  were  present  at  this  particular  festi 
val,  "  Gitty "  (Gertrude)  Rhinelander,  the  young 
hostess,  seemed  to  have  been  the  sweetest  and  the 
prettiest;  and  while  the  old  gentleman  always 
smiled  as  he  spoke  of  her,  there  was  often  a  tear 
in  his  faded  eye  while  he  sighed,  "  Poor  Gitty !  " 
Why  she  was  thus  pitied  as  well  as  admired  I  ever 
wondered,  but  had  not  the  courage  to  inquire, 
fancying  always  that  she  had  met  an  early  death, 
and  that  a  part  of  my  good  great-uncle's  loyal 
heart  had  been  buried  with  her. 

An  evening  of  this  sort  of  combined  work  and 
fun  began  as  early  as  six  o'clock ;  and  even  so  the 
aprons  and  over-sleeves  could  not  be  doffed  and 
the  supper  begin  much  before  ten  o'clock.  Sub 
stantial  things  were  those  Knickerbocker  suppers ! 
Besides  almost  every  seasonable  variety  of  cold 
fowl  and  game,  there  were  cold  roasts  of  beef  and 


324 

spare-rib,  and  platters  piled  high  with  hot  sausages 
and  rollichies,  while  there  was  a  great  variety  of 
pasties  and  boundless  stores  of  sweetmeats  and 
cake,  placed  all  at  once  upon  the  big  mahogany 
tables  supported  by  many  slender  legs.  Tea  was 
never  seen  at  late  suppers,  and  coffee  but  rarely. 
Wines,  principally  Madeira,  were  plentifully 
served,  though  punch  and  egg-nog  were  the  main 
reliance.  General  testimony  seems, to  favor  the 
tradition  that  while  the  Dutch  were  very  generous 
providers  of  the  wherewithal  to  make  merry  the 
hearts  of  the  friends  within  their  gates,  neither 
they  nor  their  guests  of  Dutch  descent  often  be 
came  more  than  agreeably  exhilarated.  Mr.  Cod- 
wise  maintained  that  the  same  could  not  always  be 
said  of  those  of  English,  Scotch,  or  Irish  birth  or 
parentage. 

After  the  supper  came  the  dancing.  There 
was  no  music  save  the  fiddles  of  Castor  and  Pol 
lux  ;  but  was  that  not  enough  ?  Have  ever  feet 
tripped  more  merrily  than  to  the  rollicking  scrape 
of  some  inspired  old  wool-thatched  fiddler,  sway 
ing  to  his  own  strains,  and  calling  out  the  figures 
in  clear,  rich  tones  that  harmonized  with  his  wild 
dance  measure  as  only  his  could  do? 

The  closing  dance,  which  always  began  at  mid 
night,  was  perhaps  brought  from  Holland  by 
the  first  settlers.  Mr.  Codwise  said  that  it  was 
thought  to  be  very  old  in  his  time,  and  considered 
to  be  the  proper  termination  of  festivities  on  all 


325 

evening  occasions.  I  am  not  aware  of  any  exist 
ing  description  of  it  save  his  own,  as  I  took  it 
from  his  lips.  It  was  called  the  "Fire  Dance," 
and,  if  possible,  was  always  "  danced  around  a 
chimney." 

In  the  Rhinelander  house  —  which  I  imagine 
may  have  been  the  farmstead  near  the  East  River 
and  the  present  Eighty-sixth  Street  and  Second 
Avenue  —  there  was  then  a  central  chimney-stack, 
which,  on  the  ground  floor,  was  triangular  in  shape. 
On  one  side  of  it  the  great  kitchen  and  its  pantries 
extended  through  the  entire  width  of  the  house, 
the  fireplace  occupying  the  center  of  the  inner 
wall.  On  the  other  side  of  the  chimney  the  space 
was  divided  into  two  large  connecting  rooms,  each 
having  a  fireplace  across  one  corner.  Any  num 
ber  of  couples,  from  four  upward,  might  engage 
in  this  dance,  according  to  the  capacity  of  the 
room.  On  this  occasion  there  were  sixteen  couples 
in  the  kitchen  and  eight  couples  in  each  of  the 
other  rooms.  The  partners  were  arranged  in  rows 
opposite  to  each  other  in  alternating  vis-a-vis,  so 
that  when  the  gentleman  of  one  couple  faced  his 
partner  on  the  north,  he  of  the  next  couple  would 
face  his  partner  on  the  south.  The  leading  couple 
of  each  room  advanced  between  the  other  dancers, 
bowing  or  courtesying,  and  swinging  alternately 
each  other  and  every  other  gentleman  and  lady  in 
turn  as  they  went  on  between  the  files  of  dancers, 
with  many  stately  steps  and  flourishes  the  while. 


The  clasped  right  hands  of  the  swinging  couples 
were  held  as  high  as  possible,  the  gentleman's  left 
arm  akimbo,  and  the  lady's  left  hand  holding  her 
petticoats  a  little  up,  that  her  graceful  steps  and 
pretty  ankles  might  be  the  better  seen,  until  they 
reached  the  next  room,  where  they  became  the 
"foot  couple." 

The  dance  lasted  until  each  of  the  thirty-two 
couples  had  led  in  dancing  round  the  chimney. 

As  each  leading  couple  came  opposite  the  fire 
place  in  the  room  farthest  from  that  in  which 
they  started,  they  courtesied  and  bowed  and  swung 
each  other,  reciting  in  Dutch  some  verses  which 
were  a  sort  of  invocation  to  the  spirit  of  friendship 
and  good  cheer.  By  this  fireplace  stood  a  tall  and 
grinning  Ganymede  holding  a  very  large  tray  filled 
with  glasses  of  spiced  punch  —  a  beverage  deemed 
to  be  a  suitable  preparation  for  a  walk  or  a  drive 
home  over  the  snowy  highways.  After  the  invo 
cation  each  lady  was  expected  to  taste  and  hand 
one  of  the  glasses  to  her  partner,  while  he  —  with 
out  tasting —  handed  her  a  smaller  glass  from  the 
same  tray. 

All  this  while  the  steps  and  flourishes  must  not 
cease,  and  to  succeed  in  draining  the  glasses  with 
out  breaking  the  time-beat  of  the  steps  or  spilling 
a  drop  of  the  liquor  was  the  aim  of  each,  a  thing 
which  could  hardly  have  been  achieved  without 
sobriety  and  much  previous  practice.  This  practice 
all  might  easily  attain,  for  traditions  tell  us  that  fami- 


327 

lies  of  the  better  class  among  our  Knickerbocker 
ancestors  met  at  each  other's  houses  almost  every 
evening,  save  during  the  very  longest  days,  for 
purposes  of  amusement,  and  that  among  amuse 
ments  dancing  held  the  first  place.  Children  were 
allowed  to  take  part  during  the  first  hour  or  two. 
A  healthy,  hearty,  happy  people  they  seem  to 
have  been,  doing  as  much  good  and  as  little  harm 
as  may  be  in  an  imperfect  world,  leaving  to  their 
fortunate  descendants  fine  examples  of  family  af 
fection,  productive  industry,  broad  charity,  and 
placid  content. 


CHAPTER   XXI 

A   MAN   OF   ENTERPRISE 


CHAPTER  XXI. 


A  MAN  OF  ENTERPRISE. 


Medical  Man  and 

Merchant. 

An  Early  Medical  Con 
vention. 
A  Captain  of  Volunteers. 
Advancing  Money  and 

Supplies. 

A  Solvent  Debtor. 

Comparative  Prices. 

Removal  to  Vermont. 


IYING  in  files  in  the  old  garret, 
carefully  docketed,  were  several 
hundreds,  perhaps  more  than  a 
thousand,  letters,  all  written  in  the 
same  rather  orderly-looking  but 
very  deceptive  script;  for  it  certainly  is  the  most 
illegible  hand  I  have  ever  undertaken  to  decipher, 
and  my  experience  has  not  been  small.  In  a  prize 
contest  it  could  no  doubt  hold  its  own  against  the 
worst  chirography  of  Horace  Greeley,  or  even  that 
of  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  which  is  usually  conceded 
to  be  about  on  a  par,  for  legibility,  with  the  cunei 
form  characters  of  the  Ninevites,  in  the  eyes  of  the 
unlearned. 

All  these  hundreds  of  old  letters,  stretching  over 
a  period  of  about  fourteen  years,  were  written  by 
Simeon  Smith,  M.D.,  once  of  Sharon,  Connecti 
cut,  but  at  the  time  that  these  were  penned  resid 
ing  at  Westhaven,  Vermont. 

Had  the  word  been  then  invented,  Dr.  Smith 
would  certainly  have  been  known  as  a  "  hustler," 
for  he  was  a  man  of  boundless  energy,  versatility, 
and  resource.  As  a  physician  he  practically  mo- 

331 


332 

nopolized  his  immediate  field,  and  was  constantly 
called  in  consultation  throughout  a  stretch  of  coun 
try  ranging  from  the  Hudson  on  the  west  to  the 
Connecticut  on  the  east,  and  for  about  twenty 
miles  each  way  north  and  south  from  Sharon. 
Besides  this,  he  was  a  soldier,  a  wholesale  and  retail 
merchant,  a  heavy  dealer  in  real  estate,  and  ever 
engaged  in  every  local  enterprise  demanding 
energy,  courage,  capital,  and  public  spirit. 

Simeon  Smith  was  a  younger  brother  of  the  Rev. 
C.  M.  Smith,  and,  like  the  latter,  was  born  in 
Suffield,  Connecticut.  He  came  to  practise  in 
Sharon  about  1759,  when  he  was  twenty-three 
or  twenty-four  years  old.  At  that  period  the 
colonies  afforded  little  opportunity  for  gaining 
a  thorough  medical  education,  the  usual  way  be 
ing  for  a  young  man  to  study  with  some  elderly 
practitioner,  whom  he  accompanied  on  his  rounds, 
and  for  whom  he  ground,  baked,  and  brewed  the 
sometimes  very  queer  decoctions  which  were  pre 
scribed  for  the  unfortunate  patients.  How  such  a 
student  got  his  degree  I  do  not  know.  It  is  cer 
tain  that  comparatively  few  of  those  who  then 
practised  medicine  in  country  places,  and  were 
styled  "  doctor,"  appear  to  have  been  entitled  to 
write  the  consequential  M.D.  after  their  names. 

It  is  probable  that  Dr.  Smith  received  his  medi 
cal  education  abroad  ;  at  least,  his  niece,  our  oft- 
quoted  diarist  Juliana,  speaks  of  her  "  Uncle 
Simeon "  as  entertaining  a  Thanksgiving  party 


333 


with  anecdotes  of  "his  student  days  in 
borough."  Writing  in  1802,  Dr.  Smith  refers  to 
a  certain  family  event  as  having  occurred  when  he 
"  was  in  Edinborough  in  1757,"  and  there  are  traces 
extending  through  many  years  of  a  regular  and 
for  that  day  a  frequent  correspondence  (that  is  to 
say,  an  exchange  of  letters  as  often  as  once  or 
twice  in  two  or  three  years)  between  Dr.  Smith 
and  two  business  firms,  one  in  Edinburgh  and  one 
in  London.  From  the  first  of  these  he  received 
most  of  the  new  medical  treatises  as  they  appeared, 
and  other  books  as  well,  for  the  doctor  was  evi 
dently  a  lover  of  good  literature ;  and  from  the 
second  came  surgical  instruments,  drugs,  and  all 
imaginable  articles,  from  firearms  to  pins.  In  the 
letters  from  both  of  these  parties  there  are  references 
which  would  seem  to  prove  the  existence  of  a  per 
sonal  acquaintance,  while  there  is  no  evidence  to 
show  that  either  of  the  foreign  correspondents  had 
ever  been  in  America. 

Almost  as  soon  as  Dr.  Smith  arrived  in  Sharon 
he  established  there  a  drug  store  which  is  believed 
to  have  been  one  of  the  largest  and  best  of  its  kind 
in  the  "  Old  Thirteen."  All  the  more  important 
drugs  were  imported  by  Dr.  Smith  directly  from 
London  and  Amsterdam,  and  were  by  him  sup 
plied  to  smaller  dealers  in  many  places,  including 
New  Haven,  Hartford,  Albany,  and  Poughkeep- 
sie.  The  goods,  of  whatever  sort,  were  first  de 
livered  in  the  original  packages  at  the  latter  place, 


334 

and  from  thence  were  distributed  by  Dr.  Smith's 
agent.  Each  year  preceding  1775  the  number 
and  variety  of  the  country  doctor's  orders  in 
creased,  still  importing  directly  from  London, 
Amsterdam,  and  various  ports  in  the  West  Indies, 
until  almost  every  salable  thing  that  could  be 
found  anywhere  in  the  colonies  could  be  obtained 
from  this  quaint,  old-fashioned  country  store,  situ 
ated  at  such  a  distance  from  the  centers  of  trade. 

As  a  medical  practitioner  Dr.  Smith  was  highly 
esteemed,  though  he  did  not  prescribe  as  powerful 
doses  as  were  then  customary,  and  did  not  apply 
the  lancet  with  the  appalling  frequency  that  was 
then  habitual. 

A  subject  which  occupied  much  of  Dr.  Smith's 
thought  for  many  years,  though  he  was  unable  to 
carry  out  his  plans,  was  the  establishment  of  a 
school  of  medicine  in  his  native  State,  which 
should  be  the  equal  of  any  in  the  New  World.  This 
project  was  not  forgotten  even  during  the  stress  of 
the  War  of  the  Revolution.  In  February,  1780, 
what  was  proudly  announced  as  the  "  First  Medi 
cal  Society  in  The  Thirteen  United  States  of 
America  since  Their  Independence  "  held  a  con 
vention  at  Sharon  by  the  invitation  of  Dr.  Smith, 
the  members  being  entertained  principally  at  his 
house  and  those  of  his  two  brothers,  the  parson 
and  "  Deacon  Paul."  The  establishment  of  such 
a  school  was  a  prominent  topic  before  the  conven 
tion,  but  nothing  could  be  done  to  forward  the 


335 


execution  of  the  plan,  either  then  or  for  many 
years  later,  on  account  of  the  disturbed  condition 
of  finances  all  through  the  country. 

In  the  old  garret  remains  a  copy  of  "  AN  ORA 
TION  ON  THE  RISE  and  PROGRESS  of  PHYSIC 
IN  AMERICA,  pronounced  before  the  FIRST 
MEDICAL  SOCIETY  in  the  THIRTEEN  UNITED  STATES 
of  AMERICA,  since  their  INDEPENDENCE, 
At  their  CONVENTION  held  at  SHARON,  on  the  last 
Day  of  February,  1780."  This  was  printed  in 
Hartford,  by  Hudson  &  Goodwin,  in  1781,  in  ac 
cordance  with  a  vote  of  the  aforesaid  society. 

In  real  estate  Dr.  Smith's  transactions  were,  for 
his  day,  extensive,  embracing  large  tracts  in  Dutch- 
ess  and  Columbia  counties  in  New  York,  in  Litch- 
field  County,  Connecticut,  in  Berkshire  County, 
Massachusetts,  in  almost  the  whole  line  of  western 
Vermont,  and  also  in  Canada.  At  the  outbreak 
of  the  Revolution  Dr.  Smith's  many  pecuniary 
interests  might  be  supposed  to  have  rendered 
him  likely  to  adopt  the  conservative  side  —  that 
is,  if  there  had  been  any  truth  in  the  allegation  of 
the  Tory  party  that  the  Whigs  numbered  in  their 
ranks  "  only  those  who  had  nothing  to  lose."  But 
the  doctor  was  as  active  in  politics  as  he  was  in 
everything  else,  and  in  1776  he  headed  a  company 
of  Sharon  men,  who  were  with  General  Wash 
ington  throughout  his  unfortunate  Long  Island  cam 
paign.  This  company  was,  with  the  exception  of 
a  few  men  who  furnished  their  own  outfits,  equipped 


336 

at  Dr.  Smith's  expense.  In  1777  he  raised  and 
partly  equipped  another  company  of  volunteers 
to  resist  the  advance  of  Burgoyne,  but  breaking 
his  leg  by  an  untimely  accident,  he  was  not  able 
to  head  his  company  this  time  as  he  had  done  the 
previous  year. 

Dr.  Smith  never  for  one  instant  despaired  of  the 
ultimate  success  of  our  arms,  and  never  hesitated 
to  fill  any  orders  for  provisions,  clothing,  or  medi 
cal  stores  sent  to  him  from  the  State  government, 
buying  on  his  own  personal  security,  which  in  his 
own  region  was  more  potent  than  that  of  the  State, 
and  taking  the  promissory  notes  of  the  State  in 
compensation. 

Dr.  Smith's  readiness  to  manifest  his  abiding 
faith  in  the  eventual  triumph  of  the  revolting  col 
onies  had  one  result  which,  at  the  time  and  for  a 
good  many  years  afterward,  caused  him  no  little 
embarrassment. 

In  the  struggling  colony  of  Connecticut  five 
thousand  pounds  had  meant  a  very  large  sum  of 
money  even  before  the  war;  and  during  the  war, 
before  the  Dutch  loans  and  the  French  assistance 
had  come  to  our  financial  aid,  the  value  of  such  a 
sum  was  greater  than  ever.  The  State  of  Connec 
ticut  had  voted  to  issue  State  bonds  to  what  was 
then  considered  by  many  to  be  a  rash  amount.  It 
is  quite  possible  that  the  doctor  had  been  one  of 
those  who  had  voted  for  this  bond  issue,  for  he 
represented  his  town  in  the  Connecticut  legislature 


337 

for  a  good  many  sessions.  If  so,  he  was  willing  to 
give  practical  support  to  his  vote,  and  had  signi 
fied  his  readiness  to  take  five  thousand  pounds,  pro 
posing  to  pay  for  the  bonds  in  neat  cattle  or 
in  other  provision  supplies  for  the  troops.  Gold 
and  silver  being  at  a  premium,  and  Continental 
currency  being  at  a  very  low  valuation,  this  was 
but  an  extension  of  the  prevailing  system  of 
barter. 

His  proposal  to  this  effect  was  despatched  by 
a  messenger,  who  was  expected  to  reach  Hart 
ford  and  return  in  about  forty-eight  hours,  if  no 
thing  went  amiss.  But  so  much  usually  went 
amiss  in  even  so  short  a  journey  as  thirty  or  forty 
miles  that  no  surprise  would  have  been  felt  had 
the  time  been  twice  as  long.  The  surprise  came 
when,  early  in  the  morning  of  the  second  day, 
not  the  messenger,  but  two  other  men  on  horse 
back  presented  themselves  at  the  wrought-iron 
gate  before  the  big  stone  house,  bringing  a  letter 
from  Governor  Trumbull  to  the  effect  that  the 
horse  of  Dr.  Smith's  messenger  having  fallen  lame, 
the  governor  had  thought  best  to  keep  the  man 
over  for  a  day  or  two  in  Hartford,  while,  as  the 
matter  was  urgent,  he  sent  two  confidential  offi 
cials  who  were  empowered  to  negotiate  the  whole 
affair  with  his  friend  the  doctor. 

The  "confidential  friends"  explained  that  cash 
in  hand  —  solid  cash,  golden  guineas,  or  Spanish 
silver  dollars  —  was  the  pressing  need  of  the  State, 


338 

and  to  get  this  they  were  empowered  to  offer  a 
considerable  premium.  Now,  it  so  happened  that 
the  doctor  had  a  neighbor  —  as  neighbors  were 
then  counted ;  this  one  lived  about  five  miles 
away  —  who  had  just  inherited  the  accumulated 
stockingfuls  of  a  miserly  uncle.  To  this  neigh 
bor  the  doctor  forthwith  betook  himself,  and  upon 
his  personal  note  borrowed  ^3330,  for  which  sum 
the  governor's  "friends"  delivered  a  handsomely 
executed  and  duly  signed  State  bond  for  ^5000. 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  third  day  after  his  de 
parture  the  doctor's  own  messenger  returned  with 
a  sorry  horse  and  a  sorrier  tale.  To  avoid  the 
inconvenience  of  leaving  this  messenger  without 
a  designation  we  will  call  him  X. 

When  X  had  reached  Hartford  he  proceeded 
directly  to  the  governor's  office,  where  he  was  re 
ceived  by  two  men,  who,  after  closely  question 
ing  him  and  reading  the  letter,  as  they  said  they 
had  a  right  to  do,  being  the  governor's  deputies, 
explained  that  the  governor  was  out  of  town  for 
a  few  days,  but  they  could  attend  to  everything 
during  his  absence.  Meanwhile  they  treated  X 
with  a  pleasing  cordiality.  Taking  him  to  a  cer 
tain  tavern,  which  they  assured  him  was  the  best 
in  the  country,  they  saw  that  he  had  a  good  supper 
and  left  him  there  to  wait.  This  he  did  very  will 
ingly,  waits  of  three  or  four  days  being  the  cus 
tomary  thing  in  the  days  when  an  absent  person 
could  only  be  summoned  by  a  messenger  on  horse- 


339 

back.  Poor  X  did  not  remember  how  or  when 
he  went  to  bed  that  night,  but  he  was  certain  that 
he  did  not  awake  till  a  very  late  hour  the  next 
afternoon.  When  his  head  was  finally  clear  enough 
to  enable  him  to  think  about  it,  he  went  out  to  the 
stables,  only  to  find  that  his  fine  horse  had  gone  very 
lame.  Taking  him  to  a  farrier  was  impossible,  so 
the  farrier  was  brought  to  the  horse,  and  discovered 
that  a  long  and  rusty  nail  had  been  driven  up  into 
the  horse's  foot,  causing  a  severe  if  not  permanent 
injury.  In  the  course  of  their  talk  X  asked  the 
farrier  if  he  knew  when  the  governor  might  be 
expected  to  return. 

It  then  appeared  that  the  governor  had  not  been 
out  of  town  at  all.  The  farrier  knew,  because  he 
had  seen  him  every  day,  and  sometimes  three  or 
four  times  a  day,  as  he  had  to  pass  the  governor's 
house  on  his  way  to  and  from  his  own. 

Petty  frauds  were  frequent  enough  in  colonial 
and  Revolutionary  days,  but  frauds  which  might 
involve  those  who  were  nearly  connected  with  af 
fairs  of  state  were  not  often  heard  of^  and  to  the 
bucolic  mind  were  almost  inconceivable  ;  yet  some 
thing  flickered  through  the  poor  messenger's  brain. 
The  lateness  of  the  hour,  his  own  condition,  that 
of  his  horse,  and  the  obvious  lie  told  by  the  two 
so  friendly  clerks  —  perhaps  all  these  things  taken 
together  might  mean  something?  If  so,  that  mean 
ing  could  bode  no  good  to  his  errand,  though  what 
shape  the  evil  might  take  he  could  not  guess. 


34Q 

Proceeding  to  the  governor's  house  as  speedily 
as  he  might,  X  found  his  Excellency  already  in 
a  greatly  perturbed  state  of  mind.  Two  men  who 
had  long  been  employed  by  him  in  confidential 
business,  and  especially  in  business  relating  to  the 
State  bonds,  had  suddenly  disappeared.  They 
had  been  seen  late  on  the  previous  evening,  well 
mounted  and  carrying  full  saddle-bags,  going  west 
ward.  With  them  had  also  disappeared  the  entire 
issue  of  State  bonds,  lacking  the  governor's  signa 
ture,  but  otherwise  quite  correct.  Constables  had 
been  sent  in  pursuit,  but  the  forgers  had  about 
sixteen  hours  the  start  of  them,  and  in  preelectric 
days  that  was  usually  equivalent  to  an  escape,  es 
pecially  as  the  constables  had  started  on  the  theory 
that  if  the  men  were  seen  going  westward  they 
must  have  intended  going  in  the  opposite  direc 
tion,  and  some  of  the  pursuers  had  gone  down 
the  Connecticut  River,  and  some  had  turned 
northward. 

After  many  a  long  day  —  not  until  about  1794, 
in  fact  —  one  of  the  forgers  was  apprehended  and 
brought  back  to  Connecticut  for  trial,  but  what 
the  result  was  the  old  letters  do  not  inform  us. 
Two  other  would-be  supporters  of  the  State's  fi 
nances,  in  addition  to  Dr.  Smith,  had  been  vic 
timized  before  the  forgeries  had  become  known, 
but  neither  of  the  two  rendered  any  aid  to  the 
doctor  or  the  State  in  their  persistent  pursuit  of 
the  criminals.  In  the  end  only  one  was  appre- 


bended.  He  was  discovered  among  the  refugee 
Tories  in  New  Brunswick  by  Dr.  Smith  himself, 
while  on  a  prospecting  tour  he  was  making,  on 
the  outlook  for  mines  of  coal  or  of  iron  ore. 

The  forgeries  were  said  to  have  been  singularly 
perfect.  Dr.  Smith  was  well  acquainted  with  the 
handwriting  of  Governor  Trumbull,  and  the  forged 
letter,  when  compared  with  the  undoubted  letters 
of  the  governor  which  Dr.  Smith  had  received 
at  various  times,  though  it  might  have  excited 
the  suspicions  of  a  modern  chirographic  expert, 
was  acknowledged  by  the  governor  to  be  perfect 
enough  to  have  deceived  himself.  For  a  time  the 
existence  of  these  forged  bonds  caused  much  per 
plexity  to  the  State  government,  and  would  have 
caused  still  more  had  intelligence  concerning  them 
been  published  through  the  length  and  breadth  of 
the  land,  as  it  would  now  be.  There  were  a  few 
advantages  to  be  derived  from  the  slow  methods 
of  the  time. 

In  mines  of  every  description  Dr.  Smith  was 
always  interested.  When  buying  real  estate  he 
always  had  a  clause  inserted  granting  to  his  owner 
ship  all  the  mines  thereon,  "whether  opened  or  yet 
to  be  discovered,"  and  whenever  he  sold  any  land, 
let  the  same  be  much  or  little,  all  such  rights  were 
expressly  reserved  by  him.  His  Edinburgh  corre 
spondent  had  standing  orders  always  to  send  him 
any  new  book  of  importance  concerning  mines  and 
their  workings.  Some  of  these,  both  in  Latin  and 


342 

in  English,  still  remain  in  the  old  home,  and  prob 
ably  there  are  others  at  his  fine  Vermont  residence. 
But  I  do  not  know  that  any  appreciable  part  of 
the  two  fortunes  which  the  doctor  made  came  from 
his  mining  ventures. 

By  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  when 
he  had  time  to  think  about  it,  Dr.  Smith  found 
that,  to  use  a  modernism,  he  had  "  expanded  too 
much."  The  times  were  hard,  very,  veiy  hard,  for 
all.  The  Continental  money  had  fallen  so  low  as 
to  be  practically  worthless.  Gold  and  silver  had 
almost  disappeared.  Barter  took  the  place  of  coin, 
and  when  a  debt  could  not  be  paid  in  produce  or 
in  goods,  then  there  was  the  debtors'  prison;  and 
into  that  most  illogical  of  all  legal  devices  must  the 
honestest  of  debtors  helplessly  fall  if  his  creditors 
were  pressing. 

The  illiberal,  unjust,  and  unwise  system  of  im 
prisonment  for  debt  was  about  as  disastrous  in  its 
results  upon  the  creditors  as  upon  the  debtors,  but 
it  was  an  astonishing  number  of  years  before  any 
appreciable  number  of  the  former  seem  to  have 
perceived  this  fact. 

To  show  the  operation  of  the  generally  de 
pressed  state  of  finances,  it  may  be  well  to  quote 
some  of  the  prices  brought  by  imported  articles, 
and  the  proportionately  small  rates  received  for  ar 
ticles  of  home  production,  as  shown  by  Dr.  Smith's 
account-books  for  1785-90,  the  items  being  taken 
at  random. 


343 

Beef,  by  the  quarter,  brought  one  cent  per 
pound ;  sewing-silk  was  sold  at  "  six  pence  fer 
yard"  A  pound  of  sugar  was  " two  shillings 
thripence  " ;  a  bushel  of  oats  was  "  two  shillings 
sixpence."  Five  hundred  feet  of  pine  boards 
brought  one  pound  two  shillings  and  sixpence, 
and  two  "  Bandanna  "  handkerchiefs  were  worth  as 
much.  But  the  worst  state  of  things  is  shown  by 
the  price,  or  rather  the  no-price,  of  the  Continental 
currency,  six  hundred  and  sixty-nine  Continental 
dollars  being  exchanged  (in  1785)  for  only  five 
pounds  and  four  cents  of  what  was  known  in  Con 
necticut  as  "  York  State  money,"  which  was  rated 
at  about  half  the  value  of  the  pound  sterling.  As 
paper  money  was  so  nearly  valueless,  the  gold  and 
silver  coins  of  foreign  nations  were  employed  when 
barter  would  not  suffice.  This  must  have  added 
greatly  to  the  difficulties  of  business.  In  1794 
the  sum  of  one  hundred  and  thirty  pounds  and 
some  shillings  was  paid  in  "  pistoles,"  "  pieces  jo- 
hannis,"  Spanish  dollars,  guineas,  and  three  New 
York  bank  bills,  the  latter  at  a  considerable  dis 
count.  Each  piece  of  the  gold  was  weighed  sepa 
rately  and  no  two  of  the  same  nominal  value  were 
rated  alike. 

The  demands  made  against  Dr.  Smith  grew 
more  and  more  urgent,  but,  full  of  resources  as 
he  was,  he  kept  on  satisfying  them  until  at  last, 
four  years  after  the  close  of  the  war,  he  was  obliged 
to  realize  that  there  was  no  relief  in  the  near  future, 


344 

anci  that  without  putting  himself  beyond  the  juris 
diction  of  his  State  he  would  eventually  find  him 
self  at  the  mercy  of  some  narrow-minded  creditor 
who  could  put  his  debtor  in  a  place  where  the 
most  resourceful  of  living  men  would  find  himself 
as  helpless  as  the  dead  Julius  Caesar. 

Summoning  his  brother,  the  Rev.  C.  M.  Smith, 
and  the  latter's  son  (the  "brother  Jack "  of  the 
diary),  then  a  stripling  lawyer  of  twenty-two  years, 
the  doctor  laid  his  case  before  them,  and  also  his 
plans  to  retrieve  his  fortunes.  He  made  over  to 
his  brother  the  larger  and  more  valuable  parts  of 
his  property  in  and  about  Sharon,  on  the  condition 
that  his  brother  should  satisfy  all  the  most  pressing 
of  his  debts.  By  realizing  upon  the  more  imme 
diately  salable  portions  of  the  doctor's  property,  as 
well  as  of  his  own  and  that  of  his  wife,  the  parson, 
after  a  time,  was  able  to  accomplish  this.  As  usual, 
the  biggest  creditors  were  the  least  pressing.  The 
man  who  had  furnished  the  ^3330  to  buy  the 
forged  note,  having  always  received  his  interest 
with  regularity,  was  present  at  this  interview  of 
the  brothers,  and  would  not  accept  of  any  security 
for  the  amount  which  was  still  due  him ;  but  this 
was  eventually  paid,  together  with  all  the  other 
debts,  in  full. 

Besides  a  good  many  farms  and  other  odd  bits 
of  real  estate  scattered  through  three  States,  the 
doctor  still  possessed  about  twenty-five  thousand 
acres  of  land  in  Vermont;  and  to  this  youngest  of 


345 


the  thirteen  States  he  and  his  wife  wended  their 
toilsome  way.  It  is  at  this  point  that  his  many 
letters  begin.  The  new  State  needed  countless 
things,  and  the  doctor  was  the  man  to  supply 
them.  In  every  letter  there  is  a  demand  for  this, 
that,  or  the  other  thing  that  is  "  absolutely  neces 
sary  and  must  be  sent  forthwith."  Herds  of  cattle, 
unnumbered  yokes  of  oxen, —  "  because  they  can 
travel  these  trackless  wilds  better  than  horses,"- 
wagons,  cart  wheels,  sleds,  "  tools  for  a  wheelright 
and  a  man  to  use  them,"  a  "farrier  and  all  the 
tools  for  his  trade,"  "machinery  for  a  sawmill  of 
the  biggest  kind,"  a  "  linnen  and  a  woollen  loom 
and  a  weaver  for  each  of  them,  good  ones  who 
understand  their  trade,"  were  among  the  things 
sent  for,  while  his  old  correspondents  in  Great 
Britain,  Holland,  and  the  West  Indies  forwarded 
to  his  new  abode  and  his  new  store  all  the  things 
which  they  had  been  wont  to  supply  to  his  first. 

In  Vermont  all  of  the  doctor's  enterprises  pros 
pered,  and  as  rapidly  as  possible  both  principal 
and  interest  of  all  the  debts  which  he  had  left 
behind  were  repaid;  and  when  he  wrote  his  last 
letter  to  "  Dear  Johnny,"  a  month  or  two  before 
his  death,  in  1804,  he  was  able  to  say: 

"  At  last  I  owe  no  man  on  earth  a  penny  that 
cannot  be  paid  at  a  moment's  notice,  and  I  now 
have  leisure  to   devote  to  my  favorite  project,— 
the  establishment  in  my  native  State  of  as  fine  a 


346 

Medical  College  and  Hospital  connected  therewith 
as  may  be  in  any  Country.  I  am  not  yet  seventy, 
my  health  is  good.  I  hope  to  live  to  see  it  started. 
In  my  time  Great  things  have  happened  and 
greater  are  to  come.  I  wish  I  could  live  a  Thou 
sand  Years !  I  suppose  your  Father  will  shake 
his  head  over  this,  but  I  believe  the  Lord  has  a 
great  work  for  this  Country  to  do,  and  /  want  to 
see  it!" 

In  spite  of  this  desire  and  his  good  health,  the 
brave  old  doctor  had  not  reached  seventy  years 
when  he  calmly  fell  asleep.  All  his  worldly  affairs 
were  in  good  condition,  and  he  left  to  his  widow 
and  to  his  favorite  nephew  what,  for  his  day,  was 
considered  the  large  fortune  of  something  over  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars. 


CHAPTER   XXII 

A    COUNTRY    PARSON'S    USEFUL   LIFE 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

A  COUNTRY  PARSON'S 
USEFUL  LIFE. 


Ancestors. 
Personal  Characteristics. 

Small-pox  in  Sharon. 

"Old  Jack"   and  "Billy 

G-    -.» 

A  Lesson  in  Kindliness. 

Influence  with  Indians. 

The  Sabbath  Made  for 

Man. 


'HE  Rev.  Cotton  Mather  Smith  was 
a  member  of  what  the  "Auto 
crat  of  the  Breakfast  Table"  and 
Richard  Grant  White  used  to  de 
light  in  calling  the  Brahman  class 
of  New  England,  meaning  the  descendants  of  the 
early  ministers  and  magistrates  of  the  Plymouth, 
Massachusetts,  and  Connecticut  colonies. 

The  ministers  from  whom  he  was  descended 
were  the  Rev.  Henry  Smith  of  Wethersfield,  and 
the  Rev.  Richard  Mather  of  Dorchester,  while  he 
was  collaterally  related  to  all  the  "  preaching  Ma 
thers,"  and  to  the  Rev.  John  Cotton  of  Boston. 
Mr.  Smith's  father,  grandfather,  and  great-grand 
father  of  his  own  surname  all  fought  in  the  numer 
ous  colonial  wars.  A  colonial  governor  and  a 
major-general  were  numbered  among  his  ancestors, 
besides  many  magistrates  and  officers  of  lesser 
rank.  Hence  it  is  not  wonderful  that  while  Mr. 
Smith  was  a  man  of  peace  he  was  also  in  favor  of 
fighting  in  a  good  cause. 

The  Rev.  A.  R.  Robbins  of  Norfolk,  Connecti 
cut,  who  was  for  many  years  the  beloved  pastor  of 

349 


35° 

the  Congregational  church  in  that  place,  was  a 
lifelong  friend  of  Mr.  Smith's,  never  allowing  a 
year  to  pass  without  an  exchange  of  visits,  though 
this  was  not  an  easy  matter  with  the  twenty  miles 
of  steep  hills  intervening.  A  son  of  the  former, 
the  Rev.  Thomas  Robbins  of  Hartford,  Connecti 
cut,  well  remembered  his  father's  friend,  and  writing 
in  1850  said : 

* 

"The  Rev.  Cotton  Mather  Smith  was  min 
ister  of  a  parish  in  the  immediate  neighborhood 
of  my  father's  (Norfolk,  Connecticut),  and  was 
often  a  visitor  at  our  house  in  my  early  years. 
My  personal  acquaintance  with  him  was  chiefly 
in  that  period.  .  .  .  Mr.  Smith  was  rather 
tall  .  .  .  and  united  great  benignity  and  acute 
intelligence  in  his  expression.  His  manners  were 
remarkably  polished,  so  that  he  might  have  ap 
peared  to  advantage  even  in  a  Court ;  they  were  a 
delightful  compound  of  simplicity,  grace  and  dig 
nity  ;  while  on  the  other  hand  they  were  entirely 
free  from  hauteur  or  ostentation,  and  he  could 
make  the  humblest  man  in  the  community  feel  at 
home  in  his  company.  .  .  .  He  never  performed 
an  act  or  uttered  a  word  that  was  fitted  needlessly 
to  wound  others  or  to  lessen  the  influence  of  his 
own  fine  character.  .  .  .  He  had  a  good  deal  of 
unction  in  the  pulpit,  but  his  manner  was  simple, 
natural  and  graceful." 

The  sermons  of  that  time  were  usually  written 


3?1 

out  in  full,  and  read  in  a  more  or  less  pleasing 
manner;  but  though  the  outlines  of  Mr.  Smith's 
sermons  were  carefully  thought  out  in  the  study, 
he  trusted  to  the  inspiration  of  the  moment  for  the 
dress  in  which  he  offered  them  to  his  congregation. 
Many  instances  of  his  eloquence  are  still  tradition 
ally  related.  As  it  is  a  matter  of  record  that  the 
church  of  the  Sharon  pastor  was  twice  enlarged 
during  his  ministry  to  accommodate  the  increasing 
numbers  of  his  hearers,  and  that  persons  residing 
in  parishes  from  ten  to  twenty-five  miles  distant 
from  his  own  were  among  the  frequent  attendants 
at  his  ministrations,  it  is  probable  that  his  confi 
dence  in  the  inspiration  of  the  moment  was  well 
founded. 

Though  Mr.  Smith's  fame  as  an  eloquent 
preacher  was  locally  great,  it  was  as  a  pastor  that 
he  was  longest  remembered. 

In  my  girlhood  there  were  still  many  old  per 
sons  who  had  known  him,  and  the  mingled  feel 
ing  of  reverence  and  affection  with  which  they 
mentioned  his  name  was  pleasant  to  know.  The 
anecdotes  were  many,  showing  him  in  many  lights. 
Some  persons  told  how,  "  during  the  awful  small 
pox  winter,  when  the  weather  was  as  cold  as  was 
ever  known  in  New  England,  he  and  his  heroic 
wife  banished  themselves  for  three  months  from 
their  own  house,  taking  refuge  in  an  outbuilding, 
where  their  indispensable  wants  were  supplied  by 
an  old  slave  who  had  had  the  dreaded  disease,  that 


352 

they  might  be  free  to  come  and  go  while  minister 
ing  to  the  sick  and  dying,  without  endangering 
the  neighbors  or  their  own  household."  This  was 
related  to  me  by  a  very  old  lady  —  Mrs.  Deming, 
mother  of  the  late  Dr.  Ralph  Deming,  a  "  beloved 
physician"  of  Sharon,  who  died  in  1877.  "  ^ 
was  no  wonder  that  all  loved  Parson  Smith,"  said 
the  old  lady.  "  He  was  the  good  shepherd  who 
was  always  ready  to  lay  down  his  life  for  his  flock." 

Another  has  recorded  that  "this  visitation  of  the 
smallpox  put  all  Mr.  Smith's  benevolence,  con 
trivance,  activity  and  fortitude  in  requisition.  .  .  . 
For  nineteen  successive  days  and  nights  the  hum 
ble  imitator  of  Him  who  went  about  healing  all 
manner  of  sickness  and  all  manner  of  disease 
among  the  people,  put  not  off  his  clothes  for  rest." 
Mr.  Smith  was  possessed  of  no  little  medical  skill, 
and  it  was  always  freely  at  the  service  of  any  who 
required  it. 

An  instance  which  shows  the  parson's  sense  of 
humor,  combined  with  a  gentle  and  kindly  dig 
nity,  was  told  by  my  grandfather,  who  himself 
strongly  resembled  his  grandfather  in  these  and 
other  qualities.  Among  the  orphans,  several  of 
whom  were  always  sheltered  and  cared  for  in  the 
parsonage,  was  one  young  incorrigible  who,  by 
way  of  punishment  for  some  fault,  was  one  fine 
Sunday  in  June  forbidden  to  attend  morning  ser 
vice.  This  might  not,  nowadays,  be  deemed  a 
severe  chastisement,  but  then  the  Sundays  gave 


353 

the  one  opportunity  of  the  week  for  social  inter 
course. 

While  the  sermon  was  in  progress,  presumably 
to  the  satisfaction  of  all  present  in  the  old  meeting 
house,  there  was  a  movement  among  the  boys 
who  filled  the  first  gallery,  and  an  irresistible  but 
half-smothered  chuckle  ran  around  among  them, 
as  fire  runs  through  stubble.  The  second  or  top 
most  gallery,  where  the  slaves  sat,  was  in  a  still 
more  visible  and  audible  commotion.  Even  the 
decorous  tenants  of  the  big  square  pews  on  the 
ground  floor  seemed  to  find  some  difficulty  in  fol 
lowing  the  thread  of  the  parson's  discourse.  The 
parson  redoubled  his  efforts,  and  at  the  same  time 
the  commotion  in  the  auditory  was  increasing. 

The  preacher  stopped  and  looked  around  with 
some  displeasure,  but  more  wonder.  Every  one 
was  looking  in  his  direction,  and  yet  no  one  was 
looking  at  him.  His  wife  was  biting  her  lips  with 
a  vexation  belied  by  her  laughing  eyes. 

The  old  slave  Jack  could  stand  it  no  longer. 
Making  his  way  behind  the  seats  crowded  by  his 
brethren,  whose  ivories  were  unusually  exposed,  to 
the  end  of  the  topmost  gallery,  which  was  that  in 
which  he  presided  as  the  self-constituted  main- 
tainer  of  discipline  among  hisown  race,  Jack  stepped 
forth  upon  the  flat  top  of  the  massive  sounding- 
board,  which  was  on  a  level  with  this  gallery  floor 
and  hung  like  a  threatening  extinguisher  above 
the  pulpit.  Here  he  was  for  a  moment  in  full 

23 


354 

view  of  the  congregation,  but  hidden  from  the 
parson's  sight,  until  he  reappeared  returning  to  his 
own  seat,  and  bearing  in  his  arms  a  very  happy  and 
complacent  black-and-tan  dog,  which  had  been 
decorated  by  a  pair  of  the  parson's  best  bands,  and 
then  released  from  the  durance  in  which  he  always 
had  to  be  kept  on  Sunday  to  prevent  him  from  fol 
lowing  his  master  to  church.  The  eager  Carlo  had 
found  that  he  could  not  get  in  by  the  dqors  from 
the  vestibule  into  the  body  of  the  meeting-house, 
or  even  by  those  of  the  first  gallery,  so  he  had  as 
cended  the  stairs  leading  to  the  top  gallery,  and 
then  had  reached  the  sounding-board,  on  which  he 
had  been  gravely  seated,  apparently  well  pleased 
with  himself  and  his  ministerial  garb,  and,  to  those 
who  had  perceptions  of  the  ludicrous,  seemed  to 
be  mocking  his  unconscious  master  in  the  pulpit 
beneath. 

As  Jack  reappeared  bearing  the  unresisting  dog, 
-  for  Carlo  was  a  faithful  friend,  and  cultivated  no 
color  prejudices, —  the  aggrieved  old  slave  turned 
toward  his  master,  breaking  all  meeting-house  rules 
by  exclaiming,  with  irrepressible  indignation : 
"  Massa,  massa  !  Dis  some  mo'  o'  dat  Bill  G—  — 's 
debiltry.  He  got  'o  be  stop'  somehow  I  " 

This  was  too  much.  From  the  pulpit  along  the 
crowded  seats  of  the  two  galleries  even  to  the  de 
corous  depths  of  the  deacons'  pew  on  the  main 
floor,  a  laughter  that  was  more  than  rippling  was 
both  seen  and  heard,  clearly  to  the  scandal  of  the 


355 

frowning  and  belligerent  Jack,  and  perhaps  to  that  of 
some  of  the  severer  magnates  of  the  pews.  But  what 
would  you  *?  The  pranks  as  well  as  the  misfortunes 

of  the  mischievous  Billy  G were  well  known 

but  always  unexpected  to  the  little  community ;  and 
the  sense  of  humor  is  one  which  has  seldom  been 
denied  to  kindly  natured  folk.  The  parson  was 
never  troubled  about  his  own  dignity,  probably 
feeling  it  too  firm  to  need  protection,  so  he  laughed 
with  the  rest,  while  gently  bidding  Jack  to  relieve 
the  dog  of  his  offending  finery  and  take  him  home. 
Then,  turning  to  the  congregation,  he  said  that  the 
little  boy's  jest  had  been  made  without  any  mali 
cious  intent,  and  without  a  sense  of  the  disrespect  it 
would  be  showing  to  the  Lord's  house.  The  child, 
he  said,  was  too  young  to  realize  this,  and  "  as  we 
would  have  our  own  sins  of  either  wilfulness  or 
ignorance  pardoned  by  our  Heavenly  Father,  so 
must  we  pardon  the  offenses  of  children,  and  espe 
cially  those  of  the  fatherless."  From  this  he  talked 
on,  dwelling  upon  the  duties  of  all  members  of 
Christ's  church  toward  the  younger  and  weaker  of 
the  flock,  until,  after  the  benediction,  "  his  hearers 
could  only  greet  each  other  silently  for  the  tender 
emotions  which  filled  their  hearts." 

Neither  public  nor  private  admonition  was  given 
to  the  delinquent  Billy  (save  possibly  by  old  Jack 
in  the  barn),  and  the  flow  of  his  jokes  did  not 
cease,  though  after  this  they  were  of  a  less  public 
character.  In  later  years  he  went  to  South  Caro- 


356 


lina,  and  there  became  a  physician  of  some  local 
reputation,  though  dying  before  reaching  the  prime 
of  life.  Recognizing  his  approaching  end,  he  left 
to  Parson  Smith  the  care  of  his  two  motherless 
children  and  their  little  inheritance  —  a  sure  proot 
of  the  confidence  he  had  retained  in  the  faithful 
kindness  of  the  friend  who  had  pardoned  so  many 
of  his  own  boyish  offenses. 

Indeed,  Mr.  Smith  ever  possessed  a  certain  boy 
ishness  of  heart  which,  from  his  earliest  years  to 
his  latest,  gave  him  great  influence  over  the  young 
of  all  classes.  While  still  a  college  student  he  was 
associated  with  Dr.  Jonathan  Edwards  in  the  charge 
of  a  school  which  had  been  established  among  the 
Indians  at  Stockbridge,  Massachusetts.  Here  were 
early  brought  into  play  the  same  powers  of  intel 
lect  and  the  generous  qualities  of  heart  which  dis 
tinguished  him  through  life. 

His  influence  over  his  wild  pupils,  which  was 
great,  was  first  gained  by  his  agility,  strength,  and 
skill  in  all  athletic  sports,  especially  in  marksman 
ship,  in  leaping  and  in  running,  in  which  things 
it  is  stated  that  he  easily  excelled  all  his  white 
competitors  and  most  Indians.  The  Indians  could 
well  appreciate  the  young  minister's  superiority  in 
a  line  so  peculiarly  their  own,  and  the  influence  it 
gained  over  them  was  increased  and  retained  by  the 
unfailing  justice  and  perfect  courtesy  which  charac 
terized  all  his  dealings  with  them.  "At  the  same 
time,"  says  Dr.  Sprague,  in  his  "  Annals  of  the 
American  Pulpit,"  "  he  labored  for  and  with  them 


357 

with  untiring  diligence  and  corresponding  success, 
and  became  a  proficient  in  their  language  while  im 
parting  to  them  his  own." 

Twenty  years  after  Mr.  Smith's  labors  in  Stock- 
bridge  had  ended,  two  of  his  former  Indian  pupils 
accompanied  Colonel  Hinman's  regiment  on  its 
trying  march  through  the  wilderness  to  Fort  Ti- 
conderoga.  During  the  dangerous  illness  there  of 
their  former  teacher  and  then  chaplain,  these  In 
dians  devoted  themselves  to  his  service,  and  that 
of  his  wife  after  her  arrival,  with  a  touching  assi 
duity.  On  his  return  to  Sharon  they  helped  to  bear 
his  litter  for  the  journey,  which  consumed  nearly 
two  weeks,  although  burdens  of  any  kind  were  usu 
ally  despised  by  their  race  ;  and  for  many  years 
thereafter  they  paid  him  an  annual  visit.  They 
always  spoke  with  great  pride  of  their  quondam 
teacher's  youthful  athletic  accomplishments,  al 
though  similar  gifts  were  not  then  so  unusual  in 
the  clerical  profession  as  they  afterward  became. 

In  Mr.  Smith's  time  all  country  ministers  were, 
by  force  of  circumstances  rather  than  choice,  both 
farmers  and  huntsmen;  and  sometimes  they  were 
carpenters  and  smiths  as  well,  and  saw  nothing  in 
congruous  in  their  diverse  employments.  Certainly 
their  congregations  must  have  been  the  gainers  by 
the  exercise  which  made  their  spiritual  head  so 
physically  robust,  the  health  of  the  mind  depend 
ing  so  much  upon  that  of  the  body. 

As  an  army  chaplain  Mr.  Smith  seems  to  have 
been  very  successful  in  a  more  than  usually  difficult 


situation.  General  Schuyler,  one  of  the  best  officers 
and  most  honorable  men  of  our  Revolutionary  War, 
highly  esteemed  by  General  Washington  and  other 
officers  whose  good  opinions  were  medals  of  honor, 
was  heartily  disliked  by  the  New  England  troops. 
The  reason  for  this  dislike  is  well  explained  by  Mrs. 
Smith  in  her  account  of  her  journey  to  join  her  hus 
band  at  Ticonderoga.  She  says  : 

"  My  Husband,  as  Chaplain,  had  used  his  influ 
ence  with  the  men  to  soften  the  bitterness  of  feeling 
which  so  many  of  them  entertained  toward  the 
4  Dutchman,'  as  they  were  wont  somewhat  con 
temptuously  to  style  General  Schuyler.  The  latter 
is  a  man  of  the  purest  patriotism  and  of  much 
ability,  but  he  was  then  unused  to  the  state  of 
things  in  our  Colonies  of  New  England,  whereby 
a  man  of  the  best  birth  and  breeding  may  yet  be  a 
mechanic  or  a  tradesman  by  reason  of  the  poverty 
of  the  land,  and  the  fact  that  so  many  of  our  fore 
fathers  had  been  obliged  to  give  up  all  their  es 
tates  when  for  conscience  sake  they  left  the  Mother 
Country.  On  the  contrary  such  of  the  settlers  from 
Holland  as  were  of  good  family  were  able  to  bring 
their  worldly  goods  with  them  to  the  new  land  and 
by  reason  of  the  fertility  of  the  soil  and  their  advan 
tageous  trade  with  the  Indians  were  never  obliged 
to  resort  to  handicrafts  for  a  livelihood. 

"  My  Husband  has  many  times  told  me  of  the 
surprise  of  General  Schuyler  to  find  that  one  of  our 


359 

Trained  Band  Men  whom  he  knew  to  be  but  a 
carpenter,  was  at  the  same  time  a  man  of  much 
influence  and  an  office  holder  in  his  native  town, 
being  the  son  of  a  magistrate  appointed  by  the 
Crown.  He  could  never  be  brought  to  see  that 
while  we  in  Connecticut  were  all  so  much  on  a 
social  equality,  it  was  yet  an  equality  on  a  high 
plane ;  while  on  the  other  hand  it  was  difficult  for 
our  men  (so  many  of  whom,  though  poor,  had  re 
ceived  the  best  education  the  country  afforded) 
not  to  feel  themselves  superior  to  '  a  parcel  of 
stupid  Dutchmen',  (thus  discourteously,  I  grieve 
to  say,  were  they  often  referred  to),  many  of  whom 
spoke  but  imperfect  English  and  almost  none  of 
whom  had  received  a  college  training.  My  Hus 
band  had  always  been  striving  to  bring  about  a 
better  understanding  between  the  troops  of  Con 
necticut  and  those  of  New  York,  and  had  thus 
gained  and  still  retains  the  active  friendship  of 
General  Schuyler,  while  he  was  always  much  liked 
as  well  as  reverenced  by  all  the  soldiers  in  the 
command." 

The  Rev.  Dr.  McEwing  of  New  London,  Con 
necticut,  writing  in  1855,  wnen  there  were  still 
living  many  old  people  who  remembered  Mr. 
Smith,  says : 

"  The  American  Revolution  found  Mr.  Smith 
in  the  maturity  of  his  powers,  wielding,  within 


360 

his  sphere,  a  great  influence.  He  had  dedi 
cated  himself  to  the  Christian  ministry,  but  this 
did  not  make  him  too  sacred  to  give  himself 
to  his  country.  His  brethren,  the  Congregational 
clergymen  of  New  England,  were,  at  large,  distin 
guished  patriots  in  the  struggle  for  independence. 
None  of  them  in  the  incipient  movements  of  the 
Revolution,  or  in  providing  for  the  hardships  and 
conflicts  of  the  War,  brought  the  people  of  their 
charges  up  to  a  higher  tone  of  action  than  did  the 
Pastor  of  Sharon.  His  sermons,  his  prayers,  the 
hymns  he  gave  to  the  choir,  were  impulsive  to 
patriotism,  .  .  .  but  domestic  action  did  not  satisfy 
him.  Into  the  momentous  campaign  of  1775  he 
entered  as  chaplain  to  a  regiment  in  the  Northern 
Army.  His  influence  in  producing  good  order 
and  cultivating  morals  in  the  carnp,  in  consoling 
the  sick "  (and,  it  might  be  added,  in  taking 
care  of  them),  "and  in  inspiring  the  army  with 
firmness  and  intrepidity  attracted  the  admiration 
of  all." 

In  Sedgwick's  "  History  of  Sharon  "  it  is  stated : 

"  Parson  Smith,  like  the  other  clergymen  of 
the  day,  was  a  most  ardent  and  decided  Whig,  and 
his  personal  influence  contributed  not  a  little  to 
lead  the  public  mind  in  the  right  channel.  .  .  . 
The  intelligence  of  the  battle  of  Lexington  was 
brought  to  Sharon  on  the  Sabbath,  and  Mr.  Smith 


361 

at  the  close  of  the  morning  exercises,  announced  it 
from  the  pulpit  and  made  some  remarks  tending  to 
arouse  the  spirit  of  the  people  to  firmness  and  re 
sistance.  Immediately  after  the  congregation  was 
dismissed,  the  militia  and  volunteers,  to  the  num 
ber  of  one  hundred  men,  paraded  on  the  west 
side  of  the  street,  south  of  the  meeting-house 
and  prepared  to  march  immediately  to  the  scene 
of  action." 

After  Mr.  Smith's  enforced  return  from  the 
fighting  field  he  still  continued  his  active  work 
of  inspiring  the  soldiers,  keeping  the  home-stay 
ers  up  to  their  duty  as  providers  for  those  in  the 
field,  and  comforting  those  who  had  sent,  and 
sometimes  those  who  had  lost,  their  best  be 
loved. 

In  still  more  practical  ways  was  manifested  the 
parson's  earnestness  in  the  cause.  During  this  war 
the  only  sources  of  food-supply  were  to  be  found 
in  the  unharassed  portions  of  the  thirteen  States, 
and  it  was  as  essential  that  every  possible  spear  of 
grain  or  hill  of  corn  should  be  raised  to  supply 
provisions  for  the  army  as  it  was  to  furnish  the  men 
and  ammunition. 

During  the  early  part  of  one  week  in  the  sum 
mer  of  1779  a  very  large  quantity  of  wheat  had 
been  cut  by  the  Sharon  farmers,  and  bound  into 
sheaves,  and  these,  in  view  of  threatening  rain,  not 
being  sufficiently  cured  to  put  into  the  barns,  had 


362 


been  piled  into  shocks  in  such  a  way  as  to  shed 
the  rain  if  it  did  not  prove  to  be  of  too  pene 
trating  a  quality.  But  this  it  proved  to  be,  and 
the  hearts  of  all  grew  heavier  and  heavier,  for 
the  continued  wet  was  a  menace  of  "  sprouted 
wheat,"  from  which  wholesome  flour  could  not 
be  made. 

Thursday,  Friday,  Saturday,  the  rain  poured 
down  upon  the  wheat-fields,  of  which  more  had 
been  sown  than  ever  before  in  the  history  of  the 
township,  owing  to  the  country's  pressing  needs, 
and  the  crops  per  acre  were  greater  than  ever 
before,  as  the  early  part  of  the  season  had  been 
favorable  in  that  vicinity. 

On  Saturday,  at  sunset,  the  rain  was  still  steadily 
descending,  but  on  the  Sunday  morning  the  sun 
rose  brilliantly.  According  to  the  creed  of  the 
weather-wise,  any  change  in  the  weather  that  could 
be  depended  upon  to  last  for  more  than  twenty- 
four  hours  must  take  place  in  the  daytime.  It 
was  plain  to  the  dullest  that  another  rain  upon 
the  wheat  would  leave  it  in  a  hopeless  condition. 

Yet,  with  few  exceptions,  the  farmers  all  assem 
bled  at  the  meeting-house  on  the  Sabbath  morning, 
filled  with  gravest  apprehensions  concerning  the 
fate  of  the  precious  wheat,  and  at  the  same  time 
showing  a  grim  determination  to  lose  it,  if  needs 
must,  rather  than  to  do  wrong. 

The  people  usually  mustered  at  the  church  a 
good  while  before  the  stated  service  time,  while 


363 

the  parson  was  always  punctual  at  the  moment. 
On  this  day  he  was  descried  approaching  the  meet 
ing-house  at  an  even  more  rapid  pace  than  usual, 
and  a  full  half-hour  earlier,  and  not  accompanied 
by  his  family  or  near  neighbors. 

Hastily  mounting  the  southern  flight  of  exterior 
steps,  and  standing  there,  the  parson  announced  that 
there  would  be  no  sermons  preached  by  him  that 
day.  The  wheat  was  in  danger,  and,  in  the  great 
struggle  in  which  they  were  engaged,  wheat  meant 
human  lives.  As  the  Sabbath  was  made  for  man, 
it  was  plain  that  to  save  lives  on  that  day  was  a 
proper  Sabbatical  labor.  He  then,  still  standing  at 
the  top  of  the  steps,  offered  a  very  short  prayer, 
and  dismissed  the  congregation  with  a  benediction, 
and  an  exhortation  to  all  who  had  no  endangered 
wheat  of  their  own  to  give  their  services  to  those 
who  needed  them  most. 

So  numerous  were  the  laborers,  so  well  and 
rapidly  did  they  all  work,  so  briskly  blew  the  dry 
ing  wind,  and  so  hotly  shone  the  harvest  sun,  that 
by  the  time  the  night  dews  had  begun  to  gather 
the  crop  had  been  saved. 

In  this  labor  the  women  and  even  the  children 
had  borne  their  share  ;  for  they  could  toss  up  the 
wet  wheat-spears  by  forkfuls  to  catch  the  wind  and 
sun  as  well  as  could  the  men.  Very  early  in  the  morn 
ing  the  parson  had  sent  his  household  into  his  own 
fields,  and  had  advised  all  of  his  near-by  neighbors 
of  his  opinion  in  regard  to  the  duty  of  the  moment. 


364 

His   daughter  Juliana,  writing  of  this   unwonted 
Sabbath-day  employment,  says : 

"  Papa,  Mamma,  Sister  Betsey,  Brothers  Jack 
and  Tommy  and  I  all  worked  as  hard  as  we  could 
all  day,  not  only  in  our  wheat,  but  in  that  of  Uncle 
Simeon  and  Uncle  Paul  after  ours  was  all  done." 

Such  an  instance  is  worth  recording,  because  it 
is  by  no  means  likely  that  it  was  the  only  one  of 
its  kind,  though  so  much  has  been  said  about  the 
ultra-strictness  of  the  Puritans.  They  certainly 
did  not  approve  of  "  needless  labors  or  vain  recre 
ations  on  the  Lord's  Day,"  but  I  think  it  will  be 
found  that  they  believed  in  doing  whatever  was 
necessary  to  forward  the  undertakings  which  seemed 
righteous  in  their  eyes  on  any  day  of  the  week. 


CHAPTER   XXIII 

-WELL  DONE,   GOOD  AND  FAITHFUL" 


\f 

? 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

"  WELL  DONE,  GOOD  AND 
FAITHFUL." 

The  Meeting-house  as  a 
News  Depot. 

A  Season  of  Discourage 
ment. 

A  Meeting-house  of  the 
Eighteenth  Century. 

The  News  of  Burgoyne's 
Surrender. 

A  Half-century  Sermon. 
Descendants. 


the  earliest  days  the  meet- 
"W-^  v  ing-house  was  the  place  to  hear, 
W^  0  and  tne  minister  was  the  person 
to  announce»  a^  political  news  of 
importance.  During  the  Revo 
lutionary  War  there  was  an  ever-growing  anx 
iety  to  hear  from  the  distant  "  front," —  so  very 
distant  it  was  in  those  days  of  toilsome  com 
munication ! —  and  on  Sunday  mornings,  fully 
an  hour  before  service  time,  people  would  begin 
to  gather  around  the  meeting-house  from  every 
direction;  for  it  was  here,  if  anywhere,  that  private 
news  from  the  army  might  be  met.  Opportunities 
for  sending  letters  home  were  few ;  but  sometimes 
a  packet  might  be  received  that  had  passed  from 
hand  to  hand.  A  might  have  happened  to  be 
coming  from  the  Army  of  the  North  down  as  far 
as  Albany,  and  there  have  given  the  packet  to  B, 
who  chanced  to  have  business  in  Red  Hook,  at 
which  place  he  found  that  C  was  going  to  Pough- 
keepsie,  whence  the  latter's  friend  D  might  be 
called  to  go  to  Pleasant  Valley,  and  there  find  E 
ready  to  convey  the  precious  missive  to  the  wait- 


368 

ing  friends  in  Sharon,  who  considered  intelligence 
less  than  a  fortnight  old  as  fresh  news. 

In  the  autumn  of  1777  it  was  many  weeks  since 
one  of  these  rare  bundles  of  letters  from  the  North 
ern  army  had  reached  Sharon.  Sad  to  sternness  were 
the  faces  which  gathered  about  the  high  steps  of  the 
meeting-house  on  a  certain  bright  October  morning. 

For  a  long  time  everything  had  seerned  to  be 
going  against  the  revolting  colonies.  They  had 
lost  New  York,  Newport,  Ticonderoga,  and  Phila 
delphia,  had  suffered  wasting  defeats  on  Long 
Island  and  at  Fort  Washington,  and  been  badly 
beaten  at  Brandywine  and  Germantown.  To  off 
set  these  losses  were  only  the  victory  at  Trenton 
and  the  partial  success  at  Princeton.  The  British 
controlled  the  Lower  Hudson,  and  made  destructive 
raids  upon  southern  Connecticut,  marking  their 
course  by  the  ashes  of  defenseless  towns  and  the 
blood  of  non-combatants. 

On  the  north  the  advance  of  Burgoyne  had  been 
nearly  unchecked.  On  the  west,  in  the  State  of 
New  York,  lay  the  notoriously  Royalist  county  of 
Dutchess.  Thus  this  part  of  western  Connecticut 
seemed  to  lie  between  three  fires,  and,  unprotected 
as  it  was  left  because  nearly  all  its  able-bodied  men 
were  in  Gates's  army,  it  had  many  and  grave  rea 
sons  for  apprehension.  When  the  eyes  of  one  met 
those  of  another,  there  was  an  unuttered  question 
in  every  glance. 

While  the  near-by  members  of  the  congregation 


369 

came  on  foot,  probably  most  of  those  from  a  dis 
tance  arrived  on  horseback.  The  meeting-house 
itself  I  can  delineate  from  the  descriptions  given 
me  by  my  father,  Robert  Worthington  Smith,  who 
remembered  it  well,  as  it  was  not  taken  down  until 
1824,  having  been  used  for  sixty-one  years.  The 
house  was  about  eighty  feet  by  sixty  in  dimensions, 
and  stood  about  midway  in  the  broad  street,  and 
nearly  in  front  of  the  present  edifice,  upon  a  some 
what  steep  pitch  of  rocks  which  has  since  been 
blasted  away  and  filled  in,  so  that  only  a  gentle 
green  slope  remains. 

The  house  had  three  doors  of  entrance,  each 
reached  by  long  flights  of  stairs  on  the  north,  east, 
and  south  sides.  The  greatest  length  of  the 
meeting-house  was  from  north  to  south,  but  the 
three  main  aisles,  one  quite  broad  and  the  other 
two  narrower,  ran  from  east  to  west,  while  short 
cross-aisles  connected  the  north  and  south  doors 
with  the  main  side  aisles.  On  the  west  side, 
reached  by  a  flight  of  steps  some  sixteen  feet  in 
height,  was  the  lofty  pulpit,  overhung  by  the 
cumbrous  extinguisher-like  sounding-board.  The 
square  pews  were  divided  into  three  groups,  the 
middle  group  being  for  families,  that  on  the  south 
side  for  maidens  who  had  no  family  ties  and  did 
not  belong  to  the  choir,  and  for  widows ;  that  on 
the  north  side  was  reserved  for  single  men  who  did 
not  sing.  The  front  pews  of  the  central  group 
were  considered  the  posts  of  honor. 


37° 

Around  three  sides  of  the  building  ran  high  gal 
leries,  the  lower  one  opposite  the  pulpit  containing 
the  choir.  Starting  from  the  center  of  the  choir, 
the  bass  and  counter-singers  tapered  off  toward  the 
north  side  gallery,  where  sat  the  taller  boys  nearest 
the  choir,  and  after  them  the  smaller  boys  nearer 
to  the  pulpit.  Starting  again  from  the  middle  of 
the  choir  and  going  south,  the  "  air "  and  "second  " 
singers  (wearing  funny  little  close,  white  caps  in 
stead  of  the  big  bonnets,  which  were  supposed  to, 
and  probably  did,  break  the  volume  of  the  wearers' 
voices)  shaded  off  by  soft  gradations  to  young 
girls  who  held  hymn-books  and  tried  to  appear 
unconscious  of  the  fact  that  there  were  boys  (with 
eyes)  in  the  opposite  gallery.  Over  the  first  ran  a 
second  but  narrower  gallery,  set  apart,  the  one  side 
for  the  male  and  the  other  for  the  female  slaves. 

Into  the  church  which  was  built  in  1824,  near 
to  the  old  one,  stoves  were  immediately  placed ;  but 
in  that  in  which  Parson  Smith  preached  no  such 
comfort  was  known.  This  building  was  finished 
in  1768,  and  though  there  were  no  fireplaces,  the 
danger  of  setting  fire  to  their  new  church  by  means 
of  the  foot-stoves  began  immediately  to  exercise 
the  minds  of  the  church-members,  and  a  fine  of 
ten  shillings  was  exacted  for  each  foot-stove  that 
might  be  carelessly  left  within  the  church  after  the 
hours  of  service. 

At  the  last  stroke  of  the  bell,  on  a  certain  Sun 
day  of  late  October  in  1777,  a  quick,  emphatic 


37 1 

footfall  rang  on  the  stone  step  leading  from  the 
ground  to  the  southern  entrance,  and  all  in  the 
building  rose,  not  so  much  to  show  their  deference 
to  the  pastor  whom  they  all  loved  as  to  manifest 
their  reverence  to  the  ordained  servant  of  their 
common  Master.  As  the  preacher  came  down  the 
aisle  he  gravely  and  graciously  acknowledged  the 
bows  and  courtesies  of  the  people  in  the  pews. 
After  ascending  the  stairs  to  the  pulpit,  he  paused 
a  moment  to  bow  to  the  front,  then  to  the  right, 
and  then  to  the  left.  This  was  the  signal  that  all 
might  now  be  seated,  and  in  the  general  soft  rustle 
that  ensued  the  pastor  waited  with  bowed  head. 

On  this  day  both  prayers  and  hymns  seemed 
prophetic  —  at  least,  every  person  who  told  of  it 
long  after  always  said  so.  When  the  text  was 
announced,  "Watchman,  what  of  the  night?  The 
watchman  saith,  The  morning  cometh,"  its  last 
three  words  rang  out  with  such  a  clarion  tone  that 
all  present  felt  that  this  was  to  be  "a  field  day  with 
the  Parson."  Earnest  sometimes  to  vehemence, 
gifted  with  a  melodious  and  powerful  voice,  and 
glowing  with  natural  eloquence,  Mr.  Smith's  ser 
mons  never  lacked  originality  and  force,  and  on 
this  day  his  flock  thought  him  inspired  as  with 
faithful  stroke  he  drew  the  picture  of  an  oppressed 
people  struggling  for  liberty  against  fearful  odds. 
Tears  coursed  unrestrained  down  cheeks  better 
accustomed  to  the  touch  of  snow  and  wind,  as 
the  late  reverses  were  recounted,  until  some  of  the 


372 

older  members  began  to  wonder  "what  Parson 
could  be  thinking  of,  to  discourage  the  people 
so  2  "  Then  suddenly  his  tone  changed.  "  Our 
weakness,"  he  said,  "  is  the  Lord's  opportunity. 
He  has  permitted  our  past  humiliation  that  our 
sins  might  be  punished  and  that  He  might  show 
us  that  He  is  mighty  to  save.  He  has  promised 
to  succor  those  who  look  to  Him  for  their  help, 
and  He  is  faithful  who  has  promised."  Then, 
kindling  as  with  prophetic  fire,  his  face  glowing, 
his  lithe  form  dilating  and  quivering  with  feel 
ing,  he  triumphantly  exclaimed : 

"  Behold !  the  morning  NOW  cometh.  I  see 
its  beams  already  gilding  the  mountain  tops.  Its 
brightness  is  already  bursting  over  all  the  land." 
He  closed  his  Bible  and  stood  with  uplifted  hand, 
while  a  silence,  as  of  expectation,  fell  alike  upon  the 
preacher  and  his  hearers.  Then,  during  the  solemn 
hush  which  preceded  the  benediction,  could  be  dis 
tinguished  from  afar  the  hasty  clatter  of  a  horseman 
dashing  into  the  village  from  the  north.  Faces  turn 
toward  the  doors,  but  not  a  whisper  breaks  the  hush. 
All  know  that  the  sacred  stillness  of  a  New  Eng 
land  Sabbath  would  not  be  thus  broken  without 
good  reason.  The  eager  horseman  makes  directly 
for  the  church.  Hope  is  triumphant  over  fear,  but 
with  hope  is  mingled  terror,  and  anxious  eyes  blaze 
out  from  blanched  faces  as  the  rider,  springing  from 
his  horse,  enters  the  church,  his  spurs  clanking 
along  the  uncarpeted  floor  and  up  the  pulpit  stairs. 


373 

The  parson,  his  face  flushing  with  the  joy  of 
a  hope  fulfilled,  read  only  the  three  words, 
"  Burgoyne  has  surrendered,"  and  then  burst 
into  honorable  tears.  The  next  moment,  calmed 
and  solemn,  he  said,  "  Let  us  thank  God  for  this 
great  mercy."  And  moved  by  a  common  impulse, 
the  whole  congregation  rose  to  the  Puritan  posture 
of  prayer  —  the  erect  posture  of  the  Ironsides,  who 
prayed  and  fought  and  kept  their  powder  dry ;  and 
stern  and  self-contained  as  they  were,  they  thought 
it  no  shame  to  shed  tears  of  thankfulness. 

I  have  heard  this  story  so  often,  not  from  those 
who  had  been  present,  of  course,  but  from  those 
whose  parents  had  related  it  to  them,  that  I  can 
hardly  realize  that  I,  too,  was  not  there  to  feel 
the  haunting  anxiety,  the  thrilling  hope,  the  over 
whelming  joy  of  that  glorious  news. 

The  country  parson's  duties  in  colonial  days 
embraced  all  that  a  similar  charge  now  implies, 
and  some  that  the  modern  minister  knows  nothing 
of.  He  was  in  all  things  expected  to  be  the  leader 
of  his  people.  They  looked  to  him  for  example 
in  things  political,  social,  and  educational  as  well 
as  in  things  theological,  and  it  must  in  common 
justice  be  said  that  the  pastor  who  failed  to  fulfil 
these  expectations  to  the  best  of  his  ability  was 
rarely  found. 

His  duties  were  so  many  and  so  diverse  that  it 
was  well  that  he  had  not  also  to  contend  with  the 
rush,  hurry,  and  consequent  pressure  of  our  own 


374 

time.  He  had  to  work  with  hands  as  well  as 
head,  but  he  had  not  to  compete  with  brilliant 
minds  all  over  the  continent  whose  Sunday  utter 
ances  could  be  read  at  the  Monday  morning  break 
fast-tables  of  his  deacons  and  elders,  and  compared 
with  his  own.  Each  pastor  had  the  sick,  the  poor, 
the  vicious,  and  the  uncultured  of  his  own  small 
field  to  care  for  and  struggle  to  bring  fo  better 
circumstances  and  to  higher  ideals ;  but  he  did  not 
have  to  concern  himself  about  similar  conditions 
and  responsibilities  all  over  the  world ;  and  if  he 
did  not  seem  to  accomplish  all  that  the  same  man 
would  do  in  these  days,  he  perhaps  left  a  deeper 
impression  on  the  minds  of  those  among  whom  he 
lived  and  labored.  The  very  long  pastorates  of  that 
time  would  be  almost  a  physical  impossibility  now. 

There  then  existed  no  prejudice  to  long  periods 
of  candidacy.  It  was  felt  that  the  relation  between 
pastor  and  flock  should  be,  as  it  generally  was, 
permanent,  and  should  not  be  entered  upon  with 
out  due  deliberation.  Mr.  Smith  preached  in 
Sharon  as  a  candidate  for  more  than  a  year,  and 
was  finally  ordained  pastor  in  August,  1755.  In 
1805  he  preached  his  half-century  sermon  from  the 
text:  "Now  lettest  thou  thy  servant  depart  in 
peace  :  .  .  .  for  mine  eyes  have  seen  thy  salvation" 
(Luke  ii.  29,  30). 

After  this  Mr.  Smith  survived  but  little  more 
than  a  year,  dying  in  November,  1806.  His 
greatly  lamented  wife  had  died  six  years  before 


375 

while  in  Albany,  visiting  her  daughter,  Mrs. 
Radcliff. 

Thomas,  the  elder  son  of  the  Rev.  and  Mrs. 
Cotton  Mather  Smith,  died  at  the  age  of  nineteen. 
Elizabeth,  their  eldest  daughter,  married  Dr.  Lem 
uel  Wheeler,  a  surgeon  at  one  time  attached  to 
General  Washington's  command,  and  afterward 
practising  at  Red  Hook,  now  Tivoli,  New  York. 
Mrs.  Wheeler  left  two  daughters,  one  of  whom 
became  the  wife  of  the  Hon.  John  Davenport  of 
New  Haven,  Connecticut,  and  the  other  was  mar 
ried  to  Mr.  Hubert  Van  Waganen  of  Poughkeep- 
sie,  New  York. 

The  youngest  daughter,  Mary,  married  the  Rev. 
Daniel  Smith,  for  many  years  the  pastor  of  the 
Congregational  Church  of  Stamford,  Connecticut. 
Years  after  the  latter's  decease  it  was  discovered 
that  he  also  was  descended  from  the  Rev.  Henry 
Smith  of  Wethersfield.  She  left  a  son  and  daugh 
ter.  The  first  became  the  Rev.  Thomas  Mather 
Smith,  for  many  years  the  head  of  the  Theological 
Seminary  at  Gambier,  Ohio.  He  was  father  of 
the  Rev.  John  Cotton  Smith,  D.D.,  for  more  than 
twenty  years  the  much-loved  rector  of  the  Church 
of  the  Ascension  in  New  York  city,  dying  in  1882. 
The  sister  of  the  Rev.  T.  M.  Smith  married  Milo 
L.  North,  M.D.,  an  eminent  physician  of  Hartford, 
Connecticut,  and  Saratoga,  New  York. 

Juliana,  the  diarist  to  whom  we  are  so  much  in 
debted,  married,  as  before  stated,  the  Hon.  Jacob 


RadclifF,  a  member  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Judi 
cature  of  the  State  of  New  York,  and  for  three 
terms  mayor  of  New  York  city.  Mrs.  RadclifF 
died  in  1823,  leaving  two  daughters.  The  elder  of 
these,  Maria,  married  Mr.  W.Tillman  of  Troy,  New 
York,  while  the  younger,  Julia,  married  an  English 
gentleman  named  Spencer,  who  settled  in  Eliza 
beth,  New  Jersey. 

From  all  of  Parson  Smith's  three  daughters 
have  descended  noble,  strong,  and  sweet  men  and 
women.  The  only  one  of  his  sons  who  survived 
to  an  adult  age  was  John  Cotton  Smith,  who  early 
entered  political  life  and  left  it  only  with  the 
disruption  of  the  Federal  party,  to  which  he  was 
attached.  He  was  the  last  Federal  governor  of 
his  State,  retiring  in  1817  —  "the  most  popular 
man  of  an  unpopular  party,"  says  S.  G.  Goodrich, 
in  his  "  Recollections."  The  correspondence  be 
tween  Parson  Smith  and  this  son,  extending  at 
intervals  from  1779  to  1806,  is  a  beautiful  record 
of  paternal  and  filial  affection.  From  those  closely 
written  foolscap  sheets  of  coarse  but  excellent  linen 
paper  have  been  gleaned  many  of  the  facts  relating 
to  domestic  life  which  have  been  inserted  in  these 
pages. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below, 
or  on  the  date  to  which  renewed.  Renewals  only: 

Tel.  No.  642-3405 

Renewals  may  be  made  4  days  priod  to  date  due. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


REC'DLD    MAY  2  2  /7  -12 


8 


DEC  2 


I     I        */  I 

grrn 


DEC  1 3 1976 


8  0  1984 


fi£C.  CIS.      NOV  1 6  '76 


REC'D  AH/C 


: 


ftPR  0  1 1984 


LD21A-60m-8,'70 
(N8837slO)476 — A-32 


I    General  Library 
Jniversity  of  California 
Berkeley 


i  W 


I  •;'*>••.•    ' 

*>     «        *•»•-•*  ' 

*       • 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CAUFORN1A  UBRARY 


